Let Freedom Ring!
July 4th: Independence day.
A time to celebrate freedom. A summer moment to enjoy family & friends. We do it with barbeques and fireworks and community. Many hang out the flag. Others spend most of the time grousing about what's missing in this "land of opportunity." But either way, do we really know what we're talking about?
Liberation is a tricky concept. It implies pulling away from something egregious, enslaving, restrictive and even coercive. It speaks to moving from a dis-empowered state to an empowered state. It references ogres of oppression. It looks at certain perspectives as life possibility determinants.
Indeed, independence day appears mostly to dance with the concept of freedom as an exterior experience. I beg to differ.
Okay it's true that we've just been, in beneficent timing, gifted with the excitement of a newly acknowledged collective 'freedom' for the gay/lesbian community. Let's take a moment to realize why that's so important.
Marriage is profoundly regarded by the deep psyche. That means, the ritual of Union is a ceremony of tremendous import to certain psycho-spiritual aspects of us. Such Union insistently inspires while simultaneously provoking certain healing possibilities for known and even unsuspected historical woundings. That's why the first year [at least!] is often so fraught. All kinds of stirrings happen. It's like you're a pot of stew sitting on a stove for a long time and suddenly the burner is turned on underneath you. Now all the fallen carrots, onion pieces and meat chunks rise to the surface. In other words, marriage is the fire under the resting stew that is you! Thus, it's important that every one of us have at least the opportunity, if wanted, to get initiated into that form of healing potential. And now it is so.
Still, such "freedom" is only one small part of the story. In fact, notice how the exterior event is still only the catalyst for the all-important interior experience. And that's my point. Let's go further.
Ever feel stuck in a job you can't imagine pulling away from? Or a relationship? Or, even more, a self-image?? Do you imagine a new job or new relationship or diet or surgery or new car or, or, or will change everything?! Come on. You know better by now. Deep down, yes -- you know better.
To some degree it's both mystifying and infuriating how we cling to old ideas of what will make things different in the face of all evidence to the contrary. However, we're a stubborn folk, we humans. Insistent and relentless. It's what also makes us great.
But for authentic freedom to occur -- for us to move to a place of true choice -- we need to take our want for liberty in our own responsible hands. WE are the liberators we've been seeking. WE are the change-makers we've been waiting for.
Let's review: your body is not your prison guard; nor is your job nor your relationship nor your family. You have the key to your own cell. Taking responsibility for the life you live, the way you live that life and the perspectives you hold about that life is a mammoth responsibility. It's also immeasurable power.
So go ahead. Light those fireworks. Grill that meat. Hang that flag. But this year do it all for you -- for your understanding that freedom is, like most things, an inside job.
A time to celebrate freedom. A summer moment to enjoy family & friends. We do it with barbeques and fireworks and community. Many hang out the flag. Others spend most of the time grousing about what's missing in this "land of opportunity." But either way, do we really know what we're talking about?
Liberation is a tricky concept. It implies pulling away from something egregious, enslaving, restrictive and even coercive. It speaks to moving from a dis-empowered state to an empowered state. It references ogres of oppression. It looks at certain perspectives as life possibility determinants.
Indeed, independence day appears mostly to dance with the concept of freedom as an exterior experience. I beg to differ.
Okay it's true that we've just been, in beneficent timing, gifted with the excitement of a newly acknowledged collective 'freedom' for the gay/lesbian community. Let's take a moment to realize why that's so important.
Marriage is profoundly regarded by the deep psyche. That means, the ritual of Union is a ceremony of tremendous import to certain psycho-spiritual aspects of us. Such Union insistently inspires while simultaneously provoking certain healing possibilities for known and even unsuspected historical woundings. That's why the first year [at least!] is often so fraught. All kinds of stirrings happen. It's like you're a pot of stew sitting on a stove for a long time and suddenly the burner is turned on underneath you. Now all the fallen carrots, onion pieces and meat chunks rise to the surface. In other words, marriage is the fire under the resting stew that is you! Thus, it's important that every one of us have at least the opportunity, if wanted, to get initiated into that form of healing potential. And now it is so.
Still, such "freedom" is only one small part of the story. In fact, notice how the exterior event is still only the catalyst for the all-important interior experience. And that's my point. Let's go further.
Ever feel stuck in a job you can't imagine pulling away from? Or a relationship? Or, even more, a self-image?? Do you imagine a new job or new relationship or diet or surgery or new car or, or, or will change everything?! Come on. You know better by now. Deep down, yes -- you know better.
To some degree it's both mystifying and infuriating how we cling to old ideas of what will make things different in the face of all evidence to the contrary. However, we're a stubborn folk, we humans. Insistent and relentless. It's what also makes us great.
But for authentic freedom to occur -- for us to move to a place of true choice -- we need to take our want for liberty in our own responsible hands. WE are the liberators we've been seeking. WE are the change-makers we've been waiting for.
Let's review: your body is not your prison guard; nor is your job nor your relationship nor your family. You have the key to your own cell. Taking responsibility for the life you live, the way you live that life and the perspectives you hold about that life is a mammoth responsibility. It's also immeasurable power.
So go ahead. Light those fireworks. Grill that meat. Hang that flag. But this year do it all for you -- for your understanding that freedom is, like most things, an inside job.
Sound the firework!! So well said. Thank you and Hurrah!
ReplyDeleteThanks my love. Hope your weekend found you filled with fire!
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