Am I free?

As a child, I always used to pity each and every tree that I pass by. Reason- it cannot move, it stays at the same place for years together, braving scorchiest of summers, coldest of winters and fiercest of storms, but alas it just cant move and last but not least its not free. Its not free to decide which bird to come and sit on it, its not free to decide who has to pluck its flower or eat its fruit. Its just not free.

And that used to made me think I was special, special because I am free, I am at my will, I always had a choice to protect myself from, the heat of the summers, the cold of the winters and from a lot more brutalities the tree might have to face. I had a choice of choosing whom I want to be with, I used to think, and a choice of eating what I want and a choice to do or not to do a plethora of other things; and here I am, thanks to the society and all the protection from my parents, to think that I am free.

But, am I free, rather was I ever free? When I asked this question to myself and looked back, what I saw was rather a matter of rudest shock. My life was nothing but a web of shackles, which I progress and regress between. When ever I progressed, I did so because I was what others wanted me to be and regressed because I am what I wanted to be, though not always, this has been the trend, and this I guess is the trend with everyone. We grow up thinking that we are free, but the reality is that we never were and we never would be. There is no will of yours in your birth, nor there would be any in your death and all that is between is just a game of probability that we play. And the only difference between tree and us is that we know what is happening to us, where as the tree just stands there irrespective of what happens to it, now I think, how good it would be, if I were ever to have an option, to be a tree when I want to. Standing there, with will and freedom, irrespective of what is happening around me, any severity hardly be able to change me, blossoming to life after each severity, not bothering who is with me and who has left, just being there because I should and doing what I am meant to !

Now that is freedom, ain't it?