We left the 4th behind us and I wonder how we all look at freedom, how we attempt to attain it and how we need others to get it. Freedom, personal freedom isn't that easy to navigate...especially when you have deep ingrown roots of the FALC.
What is the definition of freedom?
"The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hinderance or restraint."
"Absence of subjection to foreign domination or despotic government."
I see religion taking away the freedom to act, speak or think....and how do they restrain us? By putting in the fear of Hell or the wrath of God.
When we think of freedom we seldom appreciate the lack of our own personal freedoms in our daily lives. How we have given up our power to speak our minds, to question others, and to act differently than we were raised.
We mostly think of the 4th of July, the day of Independence to be a free country, but never look deeply at all the ways we have given up our personal independence of being our self, of speaking our truths, of following others for peace, and even love.
But, to me, love and freedom are one and the same.
I don't believe you can have love if you are not free.
I feel that I am free...or at least less bound by other's good opinion of what is good for me, right for me, and there are very little if any strings that are making me move...I feel independent.
And, what I discovered in yoga today, that I used to do yoga to rid myself of pain, that it was a healing tool. Now, while there is still some pain to work through, I am using it to build me.
It is like so many choices were to gain my freedom, that I wasn't looking to build a self.
Life seems to keep giving me things to free me more and to make me stronger; all the parts that are not free are coming forth to be looked at and worked on.
Each time I feel stress and angst, it is when a part of me is not free. When I sit in that, I find the answers that free me.
Being freely myself allows those around me to be freely themselves. We then all have the right to move towards or away from each other.
This to me is the greatest gift to your self, the right to do what you want.
