Within its own limitations.
The bird is free to fly wherever it pleases. Only as fast and as its wings will carry it. Only as far as its endurance can sustain. Only as high as its lungs will allow.
An ant can walk great distances carrying great weight. Only along an invisible trail marked out by others within its colony. Only carrying food that will be nourishing to the queen and her larvae.
A snake can slither nearly silently along the ground. Only when the ground is warm enough to keep its body temperature up. Only along surfaces that it can grip with the scales on its belly.
The bird cannot carry treasure many times its own body weight. The ant cannot travel freely in any direction it wishes in search of food for its own self. The snake cannot soar through the air.
And that’s part of the beauty of freedom within limitations.
You and I also have freedom within limitations. Only by naming our collective human limitations and unique individual limitations will we ever understand what it means to be truly free.
