There is a unique kind of euphoria I’ve come to experience in this life… it’s moments of true presence and self-awareness where I am able to reflect back on my journey and appreciate where I am now and all that it took for me to get here. It’s a stimulation of the good and bad senses… the light and weightless, the heavy and cumbersome… all mine.
I experienced this last night, as this tattoo is nearing completion. It has been nothing short of a journey, and a beautiful one at that. From the moment of inception to now, it has served to be therapeutic and healing in ways I never imagined.
Over a year ago, driving to work in the morning, I was having a moment for myself… something I forget to do far too often. I was listening to music and getting lost in it all, allowing it to envelop my being and really tell me something. It was amidst this that the opening chords to “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd came on. That was my dad and I’s band. They were the first concert my parents ever took me too. They’ve just always been our common link, something special between us. And every single time I hear a song by them, I completely fill up. And I think of him. And have my moment with him, every time. It’s like my way of connecting to him again, him speaking to me somehow, I’d like to think.
And then, the lyrics began… “If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me…?”
I had a vision then… I pictured a bird, flying towards the sun… towards light, freedom, breaking out of any type of cage or constraints that were holding it back. FREE.
It was emotional. It was real. Because I know he’s free now. And in being so, as am I.
You see, this art goes so much deeper than you can ever imagine. This is my journey brought to life.
Two birds, breaking out of their cage… navigating through smoke and flame, flying towards the sun. The cage represents depression, darkness, anxiety, societal boundaries, the ego, anything in our mind that holds us captive. Yet the truth is that we are light, we are free, but it takes the destruction of these barriers to truly see.
Simply put, I’ve described this piece as my dad’s freedom from his pain and constraints, and in turn, the true freedom I’ve gained from the experience, the journey of everything.
The most beautiful realization is that our scars are meant for us. To teach us, shape us, allow us to see. And once you see, life takes on an entirely different meaning. And, it isn’t meant to be easy. I believe it’s meant to show us what we’re truly made of, to teach lessons beyond imagination, to make us love deeper than ever before, to know that our time here is not promised and to feel while we are.
And, here I am.
“Bye, bye, baby, it’s been a sweet love
Though this feeling I can’t change”
Food for Fleeting Thoughts 