Wild and Free

From a birthday card caption to a message pulled at random from a deck of woo-woo cards to a series of songs with lyrics extolling the virtues of living wild and free, I can’t help but hear the “singing underneath”. Live wild and free. Live wild and free. Sometimes the universe rhymes.

It all began with a birthday card.

All good things are wild and free.

— Henry David Thoreau

And then Susan pulled a card from a deck titled Universal Truths and handed it to me. Here are the first few sentences. 

Feeling free comes from recapturing the sparks of our souls. It is knowing our inner worth and outer purpose. It is not being attached to what others think. Experiencing the feeling of freedom… comes solely from a state of mind.

(Source: Universal Truths)

Still leaning into the birthday vibe, I enjoyed a deep tissue massage during which song after song after song returned to the merits of living wild and free. Unfamiliar songs. Mesmerizing lyrics. I remembered a few words lines from one, so after my massage I searched for it. It turned out to be a song titled “Into the Wild” by Shylah Ray Sunshine.

Catchy tune. Catchy lyrics. 

And a recurring theme so persistent I can’t ignore it.

Sometimes the universe rhymes. Have you ever noticed that? As if there’s a poetry underneath our everyday lives, and sometimes — when we’re lucky — the poetry floats up to the surface.

(Source: Dueling Banjos: An Adirondack Reflection)

I’ve explored this idea often. Here’s a little recap. 

Disinclined by temperament to observe overt omens and symbolism in the world around me, I’m nonetheless receptive to the “singing underneath”. Sometimes life rhymes. I try to exercise humility and wonder in these moments. I endeavor to hear and observe and sometimes to record the poetry that presents itself.

(Source: Vernal Equinox: Barred Owl Sighting)

And here.

Today I received a subtle hint from the universe. I like to think of moments when life rhymes, when, for a moment, we hear the singing underneath. 

(Source: We Traveled Far and Wide Until We Found a Home)

And here.

I don’t pretend to credit fate or destiny with any sort of reliable consistency, but the inkling I’ve described above isn’t altogether unfamiliar to me. I tend to reference the “singing underneath” or circumstances in which the universe rhymes.

Sometimes the universe rhymes, and in that moment I could hear the singing underneath, connecting these nominally connected dots…(Source: Epiphany on Epiphany)

So how might kismet be a sort of connective tissue between college and collage?

[…]

Looking back more than a quarter century it’s not impossible to perceive some guiding force outside of my own free will and self-absorbed agency. Sometimes the universe rhymes!

(Source: College, Collage, Kismet)

In short, I’m receptive to the singing underneath. I’m attuned to the moments when life rhymes.

And then the following words from another poet-ponderer miraged mysteriously while looking through old photographs on my phone.

Live in the sunshine,

swim the sea,

drink the wild air.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The universe is rhyming. I’m hearing the singing underneath. And I’m wondering, when and where should I be wandering? What adventure beckons? Ah, to live wild and free…