What is Your Cage?

         After developing some satisfying prints of birds in cages I've been thinking about the cages that we inhabit everyday, why we let these things become our cages and how can we free ourselves from our cages. For example the mundane rituals of everyday life, like the everlasting cycle of doing the dishes, or taking out the trash or cooking can consume our lives to the point that were no longer living them, instead we are  just hypnotize in the rituals of living. And at what point do we let this become a cage? And at what point to we realize that it is one? The cage of Alcohol consumption and smoking cigarettes, the cycle of making ourselves forget the stresses that can fulfill hours upon hours of our day and can also be caused by the cage of mundane rituals, the cycle that cages us in this period of relaxation, that lets us for a moment ease the stress from our bodies. Bodies, our body the body your soul inhabits for your entire life can also become a cage. Cigarettes and Alcohol can impair it, lack of exercise, over consumption of food or lack of consumption of food can turn our body into a cage. Food in itself is another cage, trapped in the rituals of eating but also in the disorders of eating, eating too much can be a cage, eating too little can turn the lack of food into a cage. Its easy to trace our actions and behaviors to answer the question, how can these things become cages, the better question is how do we free ourselves form these cages.  My umbrella is a cage. Because it prohibits me from experiencing the rain on my skin. It shields me from the weather. What happens when it rains? You get wet. This can be a liberating concept. So what, you get wet, but you get to experience what wet feels like, what rain feels like. When do we trap ourselves in cages and stop experiencing life, the good and the bad? Yet a better question, when do we let ourselves break free? What can you do to liberate yourself?