Freedom

Why is freedom so important? What does Freedom actually mean?  By definition it is a noun that means either the power or right to act, speak or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint or secondly, the absences of subjection to foreign domination or despotic government. (thanks Wikipedia)

For this conversation I am going to use the first definition.  About having the power or right to act, speak or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.  Typically we assume this are things restricted by external forces i.e.: parents, teachers, police officers etc.,  but what about those things we do to ourselves?

What if the hindrance and restraint is from within? What if it is our own actions, thoughts and words that keep us from being free? Messages we have learned incorrectly and internalized and made them our own Gods?  Words that have been spoken that went straight to our core and replaced our own DNA until what is now replicated and rebuilt resembles nothing of the DNA we received from either of our parents?

Now it looks like some web of different markers, different measures - none of them with our best interests at heart. Ruled not by our metabolism or other structures but by emotions controlled by fear and ego.  What chance to our bodies and minds have to grow and thrive when we are being attacked by our insides?

More importantly, why does it matter?  Quite frankly, for some it doesn't. For those too far gone on their journey they have lost sight of anything internal and live in an only external world. For those whose escape mechanisms put them in a different realm that is not truly connected to this world, their escape is already complete as they journey to whatever comes next.

For the rest of us it is a fight we must face. Some are aware of this and some are blissfully unaware. I say blissful, not because I believe they are any happier, but from the thought that they must be happier living a more simple existence, unaware that they are not all they can be. Perhaps this seems judgemental and I don't mean it to be, as I continually get told to go with the flow and just allow things to be, to happen, and trust they will as they should.  That said, at this point I simply cannot go with the flow and allow myself to be a tourist in my own life.  I want to have some sort of impact on what happens to me.

Didn't I sign some contract before I arrived? Sitting back, watching my life go by brings me no closer to knowing if I am on track or not, if I am here to do what I came here to do?  Carolyn Myss talks about them in Sacred Contracts and I think just as we played a role in getting here to do certain things, to experience and contribute certain thinks, it is our responsibility to do our part while we are here.

In that vein, if I am getting in my own way of achieving and accomplishing my own freedom, what good will that do? Do I not owe it to myself and those I came here to interact with, to do just that? Somewhere along the lines that I got off the path, through age, distraction you name it, the fact is that I am now the one that is impeding my own freedom.

I think I know the how, when, what,who and why so have all of my answers to that. After today, I also have the what, when, how and why to take the next step. I know I have to do it, so I have the who as well.  Interesting notion that we keep ourselves prisoners far more often that anybody else ever does.  We don't need a cold war or weapons of mass destruction, we are or can be, our own worst enemies.

Unfortunately, that applies to both definitions of freedom doesn't it? Is the solution to both the same or does one beget the other? If we all made ourselves free from the inside, would we need to fight for our freedom on the outside? Seems to me it wouldn't even be an issue.  Hmm...food for thought.