Control over a person
Takes many forms:
Thoughts, emotions, movements,
Environment, habits,
The pace of a relationship,
A group, an organization,
Natural resources,
The wealth of a nation—
The list goes on.
And on.

A relationship
Bound by authority
Cannot breathe,
Cannot thrive.

Wisdom lies in respect
For the other.
Control is rooted
In disregard.

Those who seek
To control others
Reveal their emptiness—
Lacking meaning,
Trapped in their own
Prison of dominance.

But those who love,
Who feel empathy,
Who offer kindness—
They experience life,
They create and become.
For them, freedom
Is the wellspring of meaning.

We live in what we
Create for others.

But how do we embrace
Our abundance?
The abundance of rights
And freedoms—
Individual, collective,
In harmony—
The rights of our earth,
Above and below.

The freedom to express
And…

We see, hear, and feel
Peace in its beauty—
And its horrors
In the chaos of survival.

One lives fully,
The other clings
To survival.

We do not live
Our abundance together.
Why?