I awoke this morning with lingering images and thoughts from the dream that had visited me. An unknown woman had whispered to me, just as I crawled out of the mists of the dream, "You can be free while still being imprisoned."
I have thought about that all day, wondering what it really meant to me. I remembered hearing or reading once about a man who had been taken as a prisoner of war. While confined, he spent the bulk of his time in solitary confinement in a box no bigger than he. There was only enough room for him to sit in a crunched up ball. In this box, there was a slit near the top of the wall that allowed in a sliver of light and a wisp of air. He was fed once a day with barely edible food and a few ounces of tepid water which was pushed through a slot near the floor, grating along the dirt as the tray was slid into his cell.
Prior to his captivity, this man had been an award-winning athlete. While imprisoned, this man spent his days in deep meditation, eyes closed and mentally going through the motions of his athleticism. Day in, day out, for hours on end, this man competed in his mind. He pushed his body, mentally, to the limits of its capacity. He spent hours thinking about moving his muscles. He spent hours pondering how it felt to move those muscles to carry him on to victory. He won countless awards in his mind, each day a new event wherein he won first place.
When he was finally liberated, he rose from his crouched position where he had sat for years and walked out into the blinding light. After years of not physically moving his body, he stood tall and proud and in better physical condition than he had ever been in his life. His mind did not know the difference between imagined and real. He thought it and so it was. For years, this man had thought his way to perfection. And, therefore, when he was released, he moved and walked as smoothly as a champion, without a hitch or a weakness anywhere to be seen in his body.
You can be free while still being imprisoned. Indeed.
©Angie K. Millgate 2/02/08
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