in the tearing wind, I am free

Aware of where you were last year today; I took you on your favorite ride on the ferry. When you heard voices and ran down the ferry dock, I grabbed my car keys from the ignition of the car, and my cell phone.

I walked briskly behind you and said, "Stop.Be safe."

You kept running.

I said, "Stop. Be safe. I will have to find help to make sure you are safely escorted to my vehicle."

You turned around. You got in the car. It started to rain. You said, "I am not aware of my surroundings." "I know, and that is why you need to stay in your seat." "Okay."

I talked to you about how you are now an adult, and if you run away it is not always in my hands as to what happens when you do. I told you that you are placing your freedom (from psychiatric hospitals) in jeopardy.

"You call this freedom!?", she said.

I told you, yes, this is freedom; you may not feel good, but it sure beats the barred windows in a psych hospital.

(this is freedom, and at what cost?)

(what are her medications doing for her? does she have a quality of life?)

(is she free of psychiatric walls; yet held hostage in her own mind? preventing her from living, and being the free spirit she says she is? )

(she told me she was running, because "I am like the wind.")