Speaking for myself. Past shackles are just that. You are bound. You understand what's binding you. And then you break free. An intelligent, spiritually wise, human never allows those same shackles to bind him again. I have found (to one degree or another) that mostly what stood in the way in my life was me. My inability to forgive, to understand any deeper than my feelings, or my limited ability to cogitate. "To just be a free spirit" I understand that desire. To just be able to spread your wings, and attain new heights without baggage, would be glorious. Sadly, no one is truly free. All created things are subject to the laws of the Creator. And the longer a soul resists or circumvents those laws, the more they struggle. Thanks for your honesty. Another thought-provoking insight. Peace.... rlc

You raise interesting questions and conundrums that we find in our lives. All those possessive elements you initially mention and even more not mentioned, realities that wrap themselves around us like a blanket with the potential to smother.

Then the invocation of "free spirit", nicely said, difficult to achieve, perhaps there in the distance as a potential and as a goal or aspiration. It is so desperately difficult to be free in this difficult, enslaving world.

the invocation of timelessness, again difficult to achieve any sense of it. We know the word but have little sense or experience of what it truly means. And then: "the nexus of now". Yes, the ever present now as a kind of timely timelessness. It is forever there and we cannot escape it, and don't want to. Profound issues that eat away at our serenity and sense of certainty.