Incarcerated

What resides in your heart, in the fibers of your Being, requires expression. Deny the truth and clamp the lifeline that feeds the vitality. Removal of the labels accumulated triumphantly or in defeat, renders the ego vulnerable.

It is in this disheveled state that the Being-ness resides. Freedom shimmers in the cracks of the facade.

I spent this lifetime defining myself in the construct demonstrated: female; Jew; poor, etc. I thought I could define the essence of Me within these boundaries and find satisfaction. It is not the boundaries that satisfies but peering beyond them that enriches and revitalizes a tired life.

I cannot discern if this epiphany is due to the hormonal shift of menopause or the fifty years behind me. It doesn't matter. The clarity pierces. The lying stops now. Even as I declare this words, a tremendous wail pours from my heart in recognition of its incarceration.