Freedom – finding my freedom within The Limits

Where is my freedom when unwanted, unasked for limits are imposed on me? In reality, this is an everyday occurrence. An occurrence which happens regularly in some cases, and out of the blue in others. Night, day; rain, drought; people being conceived, people dying; speed limits, red lights; recession, inflation; body casts, amputation; being robbed, raped, imprisoned. I have two freedoms (maybe more) in any of the aforementioned situations – admittedly easier in some cases, than in others.

The most hard-won freedom I have is the freedom either to just 'get it' that it's happened or to try to 'unhappen' it. The first alternative spurs my creativity and compassion, the second renders me impotent and frustrated cuz I can't 'unhappen' anything that has happened. More's the pity.

My second freedom is to be alive in the moment or dead in the moment … finding my unique way through this once-in-a-lifetime experience or shut down and endure it. Neither way is right/wrong. At different times in my life, I have done both and had them both work. And, as my dad used to say, my freedom ends at the beginning of the other person's nose.

James Lovelock, an independent scientist and futurist, proposed that the living and non-living parts of the earth form a complex interacting system that can be thought of as a single organism – Gaia. In other words, that the earth is a vast self-regulating system. It seems to me that the human body is a micro-replica of that self-regulating system. Spiritual laws, the same – not designed by me, but which have an intelligence that, when I abide by it, my life is very different (healthy) than when I don't (sick).

So Life As IT Is – limits that exist, but within which, I have the freedom to be exactly who I am, a part of a part of a part of this ecosystem – an ongoing interaction that never fails to unfold me and the universe.

My choice – as always.