By Sello Hatang:
As we mark Freedom Month, I am reminded of a simple but powerful moment this past week. At my mother’s home, in her chicken coop, I caught pigeons on two separate occasions.
At first, they fought hard against my grip, wings flapping with urgency, bodies resisting confinement with everything they had. But after a while, something shifted. They went still. They surrendered. It was as if they had accepted that this was now their reality. And yet, when I opened my hands to set them free, they did not fly. They remained there, frozen in a freedom they no longer believed in. The door was open. The grip was gone. But in their minds, they were still captive.
How often are we in the same place?
There was a time when we fought. We fought for dignity, for justice, for the right to be seen and heard. We fought against systems, against circumstances, against the quiet voices that told us we were not enough. We resisted. We pushed. We endured. But somewhere along the way, many of us grew tired. We made peace with limitations. We began to live within the very cages we once resisted.
Let me remind you that the most dangerous prison is the one you stop trying to escape. Freedom is not only the absence of chains; it is the courage to believe they are no longer there. It is an internal awakening. A decision. A refusal to let yesterday dictate the possibilities of today. Too many of us remain trapped in old fears, past pain, and inherited limitations long after the door has been opened.
We have learned to cope instead of conquer. To survive instead of soar. Do not confuse endurance with freedom; surviving a cage is not the same as leaving it. The pigeons in my hands revealed something deeply human. At first, we resist what confines us. Then, if the struggle persists long enough, we adapt. And if we are not careful, we eventually accept. That acceptance can become dangerous, because it numbs the instinct to rise again.
But the story must not end there. The key is not to submit.
There is a difference between resting and resigning. Between pausing and giving up. Life will test you. It will press you. It will put you in moments where the fight feels too heavy. But you must never lose the will to rise when the moment presents itself. Even when you have been held down, do not rehearse defeat when freedom calls your name. Freedom requires participation. It asks something of us. It demands that we confront not only external barriers, but internal ones. The doubt. The fear. The voice that says, “This is as far as you can go.”
No. It is not.
Sometimes the greatest prison is the one we carry in our minds. The stories we tell ourselves. The limits we accept without question. The belief that what has always been must always be. This week, I invite you to do something intentional. Open your own hands. Release yourself from the grip of what once held you back. Refuse to remain where you are no longer bound.
The cage may open in a moment, but the decision to fly is a daily act of courage. Freedom is not a once-off event; it is a continuous choice. A discipline. A way of being. It is choosing growth over comfort. Truth over fear. Movement over stagnation. And perhaps most importantly, it is remembering who you were before you learned to doubt yourself.
So this week, claim your freedom.
From doubt. From fear. From the weight of past experiences that no longer serve you. The door is open. The moment is here.
Do not stand still when you were created to soar. Freedom begins the moment you believe you are free. And belief, when acted upon, becomes flight. Claim your freedom.
#PowerWeek
#ReHataMmoho
#SH
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