In his book 'Who dies?: a study of conscious living and conscious dying', Stephen Levine turns the remarkable line "We would rather polish the bars of our cage than become free". An extraordinary book in itself, it was worth reading (for me) to come across this challenging, thought-provoking image of how we chose to live our lives.

Some questions we might consider:

• how would I describe my cage?

• how would I describe my cage if I was being really honest?

• what does "polishing the bars" gain for me that I persist in it at the expense of greater freedom?

• in what ways have I opted for the apparent safety of the constricted known rather than the perhaps riskier but more spacious freedom outside my cage?

Gus MacLeod