Saturday, June 13, 2026
To have been freed is the most a person could hope for, emancipation from the insidious trap of getting there, getting ahead, and falling behind. Each new “there” is a perpetual “here.” Each finish line dissolves into a point of departure. There is no stopping this process, but there is a way to turn yourself over to it and allow it to unfold without forcing, claiming, or competing. Just noticing.
To have been freed is to see how the mind is afraid of the horizon it makes up. All limits appear as drop-offs. All goals appear as competitive finish lines. As you reach the goal, the goalpost remains distant. And so, you realize racing in a hustle culture is what exhausts your “average” human.
To have been freed means that you don’t give up ambition. You merely realize that striving to get those checklists checked means to be checked out. Heaving towards retirement, enduring towards vacation, and saving for a bright future are totem poles, godless slave drivers who show no mercy!
The enslaved see the end, and the means means nothing. To have been freed is to put a stop to this madness, yet still have ambition, desire, and eagerness to do things. To have been freed is to enjoy your breakfast, to see how lovingly the dog looks up at you in the morning light, and to kiss a child on the forehead. To have been freed is to no longer miss your life chasing the afterlife.
To have been freed, death is inevitably slow and joyfully welcomed. To have been freed is to have found the immersive center between now and what is to be accomplished; and how what is to be accomplished will have a merciful ongoing quality as well.
To have been freed is to take your time, and to realize that time cannot be taken from eternity.