Freedom and Fate by Jina Wallwork

I know that you can’t choose your own desires. The heart makes choices that we either follow or don’t. Our actions are based on a collection of desires and thoughts that we can’t choose. I can’t feel a set of emotions that are alien to me, and I can’t decide to be someone else. I’m only free to be me. I might believe that I’m trapped within the confines of my own soul and forced to walk a path that has been decided by fate. I can’t embrace an erratic array of choices or switch directions because I am who I am, and you are who you are.

         As I walk my path, I feel like a free spirit. I believe in my own freedom, even though I can see the footsteps I haven’t yet created. I step forward into the fragments of a premonition. It is in these moments that I feel the most freedom. I believe in my own freedom, and I believe in my own soul. If I felt trapped, then I would be imprisoned by that belief. My soul feels free and powerful even though the path has already been decided by something larger than myself. I once chose not to believe in fate because I feared the restrictions that are part of its existence. Now, I see freedom as an emotion and a belief. It becomes intense when I accept my path, and it diminishes when I attempt to walk away. Every diversion seems like a part of the greater design. I feel as though I’m free. Am I?