Today is Monday.
Sitting here today at a small desk in a small town...me, my thoughts, and you. This isn't much until you consider that one month ago I was sitting in prison. This is the first time I've ever written from freedom. Up to this point everything was penned out from a cell in the Department of Corrections. Obviously I made the journey. If you have been along for a while then you already know my story. If you're new, the story is that I just completed a 10-year sentence.
I believe that our entire life is a journey. This last bit of my journey was necessary for me. There are times in our lives that we make a mistake we can simply say we are "sorry" for. Other times a simple sorry won't pay justice to the offense. I had to go away so that I could pay my dues. Over my lifetime I have done many things that left me feeling less of myself. I find a great sense of relief having had this opportunity to pay back my debt. For those of us who committed the crime but never got caught, you may still carry around some of that baggage with you. Have you ever stopped to realize that? Perhaps not. I probably wouldn't either, but since it worked out this way, well….What I found out is how it feels to fly.
When all the restraints that hold us back are gone, we then experience true freedom. I'm far past just the freedom of my feet on free-soil. I'm free in my heart. This experience changed not only my life, but the way I VIEW life.
Part of this new freedom is taking my place back in society. When you go without a drivers license for over 5 years, you are required to take both the written and driving tests over again. I went in and passed the written just using common knowledge. Five inches of snow fell the night before I took the driving test. Not only have I not drove in 10 years, but now I have snow to drive on!! Wild as it is, I went in and aced it. The first thing was to parallel park. Check this out....I didn't parallel-park even before prison. I nailed this shit first shot! Mom rode with me to the test. She said later she was amazed. I couldn't do that again if I was paid to...there's a picture on Facebook of me with the certificate they gave me after the test. My life has not had a dull moment since my feet hit the free side of the fence.... In fact, if I could, I would venture to say I don't think my life will EVER seem dull to me....you know, after all :}
