Freedom of her Soul

I have been encouraged to share an amazing and proud moment when I was awarded joint second in the novice section of the Circle Literaire Irlandais, Women in Words competition 2025. Here it is.

Freedom of her soul.
She is women,
Mnà na h’eireann, always, Mnà na farraige for a long moment.
This is her time standing on the flat rock looking out to sea. On a clear day you can see the far-off silhouette of another land. Not seen with the blanket of early morning mist. Blending like a painting of dark grey, blue grey to white.
The sea only there to her feet. It draws her, pulling, just pulling so she can’t say no. She resists for a time.
Sitting remembering the past of childhood holidays. She is hearing the laughter of her younger self free in the innocence of youth. In her mind she sees her brothers and cousins jumping and swimming; Happy so happy.
The freedom of it all the freedom of youth.
The sun starts to lift the mist, the painting changing colours becoming more blue than grey. Waiting some more to let her mind drift again to other moments at this rock. Love, tears were all part of it.
She knew that this pull would be there. Prepared she stepped out of her track pants and top. It was fresh. The promise of a warm summer morning was there.
At the edge of the rock
 Arms outstretched, lifting from her toes, hands together to break the surface.
 Plunging into the immense sea, cold and shocking.
Cold bites into her skin made bare, no cloths to hold her in.
The icy water clings to the total being.
Her arms pull her through this feeling of total freedom and been trapped by the pressure, Pressure bought about in this darking world she has entered. This darkness draws her to the sense of aloneness. Alone in this world, this moment where she knows she is free to decide. Only her and the sound of a cracking sea.
Does she pull up to the warm blue sky above her or continue till her lungs feel they will burst?
Her freedom lets her decide. Alone she pulls, alone she glides further down, water tingling on her skin, on her soul. Her pull is slow, and strong with the deliberate determination of movement. It makes her ageless.
The sea stings her eyes as she peers into the depts.
The moment is strong, her desire to live, survive. In an instant she draws to the sky. Breaking the surface, gasping for air, seeking the warmth of the sun. It is to wrap her up in its warm embrace. Its heat enters her. Like a lover. Touching her inner self.
Floating on the surface brings a different freedom. The gentle waves lap against her thighs. Cover her naked breasts. Breasts free from the suckling of a child. Free from the love making. The body and soul are all her.
Waves splash her face as did life, a life which pulled her to all, away from her feeling free. These waves replenished every cell of this body now floating. Replenishing a freedom that heals.
Watching the vast wing expanse of the elegant gannet hovering above on the gentle wind. The web and flow of the present. Watching gives her mind grace away from the chatter of her usual state. The gannet floats free, she envies its freedom but is it free, her thoughts wonder on.
Bobbing with the movement brings her to the music around her. The rhythm of her breath, calm now. Her heart beat heard in her ears.
Again, the crackling of the sea, interrupted by a seagull nearby, the gannet has passed to further seas.
How long can she stay.
o float is to be liberated.
She stays.
She doesn’t want to go anywhere else, staying keeps her in this state of being.
In the distance the sound of a boat engine grows near, the sounds of human voices disturb her peace, her aloneness.
The freedom of this time passes.
It is now she needs to remerge into the other life.
Life of been pulled by others.
She will return again to this freedom.
This place of decisions to the plunge, dive, live, survive and crackle of the sea, as the sea birds glide & float on the gentle breeze.
Her freedom. Her life. Her soul.
Her arms outstretched again, pulling up from the sea to the rock.
Now she wraps her naked body in the towel warmed by the sun.
This warmth embraces.
She smiles; she is ready.
She is women.
Replenished.
To feel the freedom of a women, Mna.