Long ago I was a Free Woman. I had a different name. I wore luxurious deep blue robes. I had a large family. I accepted a Companion. I had slaves. I was cherished, adored, loved and I felt ... contrived.

It's better to be hated for who you are than loved for who you are not. - Andre Gide

It is true that free women may be outspoken, talkative, spirited, active people. It is also true that they do so only knowing that if they go "too far" any man at hand might strip them of their veils, place steel to their throats and thereafter call them slave... especially if that man is too insecure to face the truths in what that woman is saying.

Those that would trade freedom for security neither gain, nor deserve, either. - Thomas Jefferson

We live in a male dominated society, but that does not mean that men are Gods. It does not mean that they are perfect, that they are always right, that they are somehow "better" than others or that they are infallible. In point of fact, they are frequently imperfect and wrong. They are only human, prone to dishonourable behaviour as much as any other person... particularly if they feel threatened by a woman�s inner strength.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Men talk of honour frequently, macho posturing as they do, their tone and body language clearly telling anyone who knows how to truly listen that they do not understand the nature of what they speak of. They believe, quite firmly at times, that honour resides solely in the realm of the masculine... they are Wrong.

I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth - and truth rewarded me. - Simone de Beauvoir

Women have honour. Slaves have honour. Honour comes from deep within an individual, it is not something that can be changed from without save by our own actions... that is something I have known all of my life... and so, feeling constrained, feeling incomplete, feeling that somehow I was not where I belonged... I left the bondage of robes and veils behind.

In-between stimulus and response is a space. In that space lies our power and freedom to choose. How we wield those choices determines our happiness. - Steven R. Covey

I lost much, when I made my choice. I lost family who did not truly care for me, to whom I was, unknowingly, a burden. I lost friends who were not really friends, to whom I was, unknowingly, merely a stepping stone towards popularity and power. I lost several slaves who were actually manipulative little twats draining me of the energy I had that made me a unique, special woman...

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I lost the depression that tickled and teased at the back of my mind. I lost the seemingly inexplicable anger that flared in me each time I put my integrity and honour aside to pander to a mans insecurities when I knew him to be wrong, never realizing that was what I was doing. I lost the blind hatred that was growing in me each time one of those sweet serpentine little slaves grudgingly hissed the words "yes Mistress", giving the phrase a wealth of disgusted judgment that I could not identify, distracted as I was by other things.

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost. - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Oh yes, yes, I lost much.... but I gained friends, men and women both, free, outlaw and slave, who intrinsically understand that integrity and honesty is what makes us honourable people. I gained back myself, fully, all the little parts that had been hiding, all the little parts that had been slowly withering away, all the little parts that had been trying to claw free. And I gained a Family that understands me (most of the time) and accepts me fully, with open hearts, without reservations, without expectations, without judgment.

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. - Dr. Seuss

A family, mostly of women, free, outlaw and slave alike, whom I cherish, adore and love with all my heart. A family I unhesitatingly stand in front of to make sure no hurt ever reaches them.

Sonnet CXVI

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love 's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.
Lao-Tzu, philosopher, 6th century B.C.