I killed a bird yesterday. It was after work and I was on my way to the pre-school to pick up the younger children. I could see it aiming for the car so I slowed down, closed my eyes a little, and waited for the thump. It didn’t disappoint. The thump was so loud I can still hear it resonating in my ear drums.  Although this particular bird was a sparrow, a tiny, almost cute little air born creature. Which leads me to ponder the question, if this bird has the capacity to soar at great heights with it’s emancipation, what in the world was it doing at street level?

Suicide?

Perhaps. I’m sure even birds get depressed from time to time. If we as humans have the ability to soar at great heights yet for one reason or another find ourselves crashing back down to earth, then why can’t a bird suffer the same fate?

When I delve into this issue a little deeper and ask myself what it is that cause these crashes in my life, I always seem to reach the same conclusion.

I suffer from premature emancipation.

I build my life’s situation up to a level where I think every aspect of it is running smoothly. I then lull myself into a false sense of security, becoming so content in that fact that I give myself the freedom to exhale for a moment.

Yet predictably, issues always seem to arise out of nowhere leaving me to feel trapped in a life that just a minute ago, had contemplated offering me a chance at emancipation.

Emancipation from what you ask? No not my immediate family, although a day off every now and again wouldn’t go astray let me tell you.

I’m talking about the freedom you feel when you reach that point in your life, where all of a sudden you look around at things and realise that the cogs are in motion and no-one is crying bloody murder.

Life just seems to have fallen into place and you feel the urge to sing “Kum Bah Ya” with your neighbour because you feel one with the universe.

Alas, nothing in life is a certainty.

Not situations, not circumstances, not relationships, nor emotions.

One day you may think that you’ve played your part in populating the world. The next day you may find two lines on that stick of balance.

Balance isn’t always necessarily a good thing.

Sometimes one side needs to be heavier than the other in order for things to work in your favour.

Perhaps balance is complacency.

Perhaps balance is mediocrity.

I understand that balance keeps one from falling, but if you ensure there is a net under you, you would surely risk walking on a tight rope from time to time. Wouldn’t you?

I heard an expression recently that I thought was fitting for many relationships.

“I get the sense that you hold the ground and she flies.”

It made me start thinking that perhaps the reason we sometimes crash, is because while we fly we feel that no-one is holding our ground.

I’m not even speaking in the marital sense. Not everyone is married, or in a relationship but can relate to the logistics of this argument.

If we feel we’ve lost a support network – from wherever, a partner, a parent, a sister, a friend, etc. It may just be the very thing that sends us crashing down to earth.

So freedom is more than likely support – our emancipation in this life.

It’s just up to us not to prematurely count on the uncertainty of it.

The old saying that it takes a community to raise a child is perhaps true.

Perhaps that child is you.