It has been quite a soul searching time for me for the past week or so.

First of all, after much thought and realizing that there is always another way of looking at my situation than I might have been doing, I broke down my inhibitions and acquired a very beautiful walker for daily walks.  It has been a source of discussion among myself and family members for some time. I knew they only wanted the very best for me and after I realized that, it became easier to admit that I had to make some changes.

The interesting thing tho is that one of the comments made to me on Facebook, is that the freedom that I had acquired along with the beautiful walker was worth whatever it took to start pushing it. Freedom had not even entered my mind, and so I felt doubly blessed to begin to feel that I could go easily wherever I wanted.

Fast forward to today, Saturday, January 21, 2017, and I am watching a whole different way of looking at freedom. Yesterday I watched the Presidential Inauguration ceremonies along with millions of other people. Many of the people were extremely happy to see the pomp and ceremony of our country, no matter how they felt about the outcome of the election.

Still others were looking at it in their own vision of what they wanted to happen, and the majority of them were peaceful and determined.  Out of the many watchers and marchers there were a few misguided people who showed their displeasure by violence and breaking the law. Fortunately the authorities put a stop to that so that the marches could go on.

But today is another whole day. Women and men have come out and marched for their right to show what is important to them. All over the world women have organized as a group to show that this country is made up of individuals who feel that all people, no matter their color or beliefs, religions, or backgrounds, have a right to be heard, in a peaceful manner. This country is founded upon that very idea, equality, and the name of our country is UNITED. We may not all think the same way, or look the same, we may not pray the same way, but we do all have the right to do it without making a mockery of others. And a lot of people dug deeply into their pocketbooks or wallets to find a way to go to a march, either in a nearby city, or even to Washington, D.C. To them it was important to show that we want to exercise our rights as citizens and show our support for each other.

Freedom is only a good thing if when we want freedom for ourselves, we also want it for all of the other people in our country. Freedom brings responsibilities for all of us in our daily lives. It does us no good to only want freedom for our own families, our own friends, our own churches, our own parties.

We all know that everyone is not always blessed with all of the good things in life. We also know that we can remember the ones that are not so lucky with compassion and generosity. We just have to make the choices.

On this special Women’s March day, I choose to remember. We have freedom here and we also have the choice of what to do about it. It is up to each of us to remember that this is true of all of the citizens in our country.

Have a great New Year, 2017.