Freedom ?

Waterlillies.

There is something exciting about finding mountain trails that you have never walked before. Even more exciting when you know that there is the possibility of seeing wild boar and possibly snakes that you do not see at home. 

Equally exciting for me are the many wildflowers, birds and those beautiful butterflies some almost the size of the palm of my hand. I am captivated by it all. There is one little bird I hear all the time with its very distinctive call, the bee-eater. It is a very colourful bird but I only know this from looking at it in books and online, as yet I have been unable to spot one.

I enjoy finding these tracks that I do not know where they are going. Every now and then I am faced with a choice of track to follow. of course, the obvious thing to do would be to have a map and follow it. There is a gentleman on the site who I have known for a few years who keeps offering to give me one. I will because he has given a fair bit of time to mark all the routes he knows on the map.

I have to be honest I love the sense of freedom and danger that being without brings me. The total freedom to make wrong choices.

Dorothy Sayers said of this freedom, "The divine "scheme of things," as Christianity understands it, is at once extremely elastic and extremely rigid. It is elastic, in that it includes a large measure of liberty for the creature; it is rigid in that it includes the proviso that, however, created beings choose to behave, they must accept the responsibility of their own actions and endure the consequences.

In her view freedom comes with a price tag. Having at one time fallen some fifty feet down a ravine I am aware that freedom can be a sore and costly matter. But of course, she was talking about another very different day of reckoning. Some reading this will go along with her others will think that the present price is the only one.

"A man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes, " says Huxley. All our freedoms come with the added responsibility of living with the consequences when we use our freedom unwisely. 

Throw a pebble into a pool and watch the ripples move out in an ever-widening circle. All of our actions of freedom have the same effect. Each little action has a bearing on others around for ill or good.

In the last two days walking on my own, I have made the wrong choice of track to follow more than a few times. Some have taken me to dead ends other have led me onto a path with those tiny little jaggy plants. At least on track let me on a very long circular route of undulating hills. 

I do not need to draw out the fact that all of this can so easily be related to life itself. Joys and dangers and peace, struggle and the easy path are just some of the consequences of the freedom we have.

"Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. We are in bondage to the law in order that we may be free. Both the law of humanity and the laws of nature. 

Freedom to say what we wish, go where we wish and do what we wish come at a great price and must be respected and cherished.

Beware of the soft spoken politicians who would in a moment steal that freedom so costly purchased.

Not often I get political but in todays present climate we ae in grave danger of giving away that freedom.

Have a wonderful carefree day I am off to see new tracks and new adventures. Will I have a map?