because I am free.

{flickr photo via ClareForster)

And as I formed the response in my head, they loomed up over me.

Hundreds of them, swarming the telephone poles and telephone wires, moving gracefully and fluidly and fantastically. Multiple murmurations.

The swooped over my car as I made my way to the red light, and I watched them just as quickly swoop back up, like a gentle yo-yo from the sky. Tiny black specks dancing in unison.

And I heard their message to me clearly and strongly: I am free. They are free, floating about as they wish, going in any direction they please. Free. Radically free.

I have always been free, and I always will be free. Like a great murmuration filling the sky, I am free. We are free.

And so I wrote the response, freely and honestly. I spoke my truth.

Because I am free.