Sarah was sick and tired of being tied down and tied up. She wanted to fly, to be free. With incredible stress and strain, she broke the shackles of her relationship with Brian. It wasn’t that Brian wasn’t a good guy – one of the best – it was just that the way Sarah acted, the way she reacted, to the relationship made her unhappy. And she felt chained to the weight of that unhappiness until, through the slow and painful process of breaking away, she found herself free. Incredibly free.

            But, oh my, now what? How does one act when one is free? When one is free for the first time ever? When one was born free but immediately started being tied up? Tied up by the conflicting messages of confused parents and relatives. Tied up by a society that didn’t value the natural beauty and inherent intelligence of little girls. And so Sarah began the process of being tied down, of tying herself up, which of course was only the earliest step of learning to break free.

            So, she was untied from Brian. Such a relief! The best part was having an easy, comfortable relationship with him again.

            But, you know, as she cut one tie, another one would be cinched down tighter and tighter. Now Sarah was wondering how to be her best self at work, at a job she loved but with people she didn’t particularly love. Like with Brian, she realized it wasn’t them, wasn’t the others. It was her again, tying herself up in reaction to others, to others’ problems, to others’ reactions.

            What if she had a job where she not only liked her work but where she also liked her colleagues, her coworkers? Where she felt respected and where she respected others. Where she felt free, untethered by the opinion of others, free to do a terrific job, to do more and better work, to be more and more herself. Herself – the beautiful, smart little girl now with years’ of experience and new ideas. The talented, successful happy Sarah – free at last, flying through her life.