Sometimes people around you won't understand your journey. They don't have to - it's not their journey..... 

The Peace of Freedom

She made her decision without thinking - that is, without consciously thinking. The real surprise to her, though, was not really what she did with that decision but was in how she felt afterwards. She was shocked, of course. But not at all guilty. In fact, she actually felt simple relief and full of peace, when the very least she should have felt after walking away from her forty-two year marriage was shock. She had not mentioned a word to anyone - family or friends - even herself, by way of apologies or excuses. 

She wasn't sure why or why now. But, as she placed her house keys in the blue pottery dish on the foyer table and closed the door of her dignified home behind her, she supposed that the years of emotional neglect, submissive servitude and submerged identity, instead of the promised life full of colour and interest and the richness of love and loving had finally taken their toll. By the time she had reached seventy years old, she couldn't help feeling both cheated and empty.

And so, without a backward glance, she clutched her purse closely and pulled her small suitcase on wheels and began her walk to freedom. Not to have the faintest idea of where she would go, what she might do - or become - was a perfectly new and intensely liberating experience. She now felt as excited as the young girl she once was as she started her journey and was actually happy enough to run. Far away from the neat suburbs of stately tree-lined avenues. Far away from her smug middle-class security. Far away from her sou-destroying marriage.....