Having worked in both prisons and jails and/or donating time in their wellness programs.

I have only experienced jail as a person who works there, always having in mind I could leave at any time by choice.

My conversation with this gracious public speaker lasted for hours. We spoke mostly about freedom. The unique ways we all view and see freedom. Even what freedom feels like. We talked about choices and oddly enough the conversation was not about the choices anyone makes. Rather, the ability of having choices removed from us during incarceration.

We both agreed that each person, in the end, will construct their own pathway through life.

Jail might be in someone’s pathway. We each end up different places due to our random lives.

But….

I was left with much to think about when our conversation ended.

I was left thinking about a small part of our conversation where they said…………

“Rather than thinking about why you do not want to be incarcerated, break laws or otherwise …. ..What if we paid attention to our freedom. What freedom truly feels like. Become aware of it. Maybe, sometimes we forget as life is running by us, but I ask the people I speak with to try to understand what freedom is to them. We have a lifetime to cherish our freedom but only if we understand how precious it is.”

The conversation was worth every minute that passed!

– Keely Marie – Decato Law