We long for freedom, to break away
The world to conquer, our strength to display.
But we let life drag us along like so many rag dolls
We fear, we wish, we beg, we crawl.
We refuse to live, we refuse to be free,
We forget what we once longed to be.
Freedom is not a condition, but a perception,
We create our own chains of self deception.
We must choose on our own to not merely exist,
We need to take charge, not let ourselves drift.

We tie ourselves to the life we have lived, to the past,
And cringe at the opportunities of a world so vast.
Our conscious limits our freedom, tells us to conform,
So we seek the shelter of acceptance to weather the storm.
We are shackled to the past that we allow to define
Our place in life, so we simply resign.
We hide from our freedom to choose our own fate
We wish and regret until it’s too late.

We take our identity from around us, not from within
We hide from our fear in someone else’s skin.
We blame society, forget our freedom to choose
Our own path in life, and we try to excuse
The way we confine ourselves to what we have once been
Our will and ambition are all worn thin.
We soothe our anxiety by seeking acceptance
For all that we do, and move with reluctance
To new heights to improve the selves that we hate.
We limit our freedom, fear tells us to wait.

We allow someone else to take responsibility
Then we complain and seethe at our inability
To choose our own path and do meaningful things,
Hating the life that our weakness brings.
We hide from our freedom in dread and routine,
At birth and at death and the time in between.

We wish for a hand to guide us, to show us the way,
Then contradict ourselves and push away
All external control, and then contradict once again
When we cower from fear of rejection and pain.
Death comes to all, whether they hid or were brave.
Any fear that once was has no effect on the grave.
Life has no meaning but what we give it,
For the end is the same no matter how we lived it