Posts Tagged ‘Freedom’
Relaxing into the Unknown
Thursday, September 20th, 2012
Welcome to the Unknown. As I sat in meditation this week, I was drawn to the unknown, unnamed, and unthought. As my mind started conjuring up fearful thoughts, my body fidgeted, I took a long inhale and exhale. I let silence fill me. And then my higher meditative self welcomed me home – welcomed me to the unknown. I am having a ‘reception’ for my unknown self. I am not ready to embrace it yet, but I will offer the unknown a toast.
As I read though my emails, there was a message to remind me just how much I can relax into the unknown. “It’s not impermanence per se, or even knowing we’re going to die, that is the cause of our suffering, the Buddha taught. Rather, it’s our resistance to the fundamental uncertainty of our situation. Our discomfort arises from all of our efforts to put ground under our feet, to realize our dream of constant okayness. When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into its dynamic quality, that’s called enlightenment, or awakening to our true nature, to our fundamental goodness. Another word for that is freedom—freedom from struggling against the fundamental ambiguity of being human.” Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change, Pema Chödrön
How are you with uncertainty? What ways have you embraced relaxing into the unknown?
Photo by Mary Anne Flanagan
Freedom Means…
Sunday, July 4th, 2010
Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. ~Abraham Lincoln
Liberty is the possibility of doubting, of making a mistake,… of searching and experimenting,… of saying No to any authority – literary, artistic, philosophical, religious, social, and even political. ~Ignazio Silone
For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
No one is free when others are oppressed. ~Author Unknown
Freedom means choosing your burden. ~Hephzibah Menuhin
Freedom is that instant between when someone tells you to do something and when you decide how to respond. ~Jeffrey Borenstein
Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better. ~Albert Camus
Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. ~Mahatma Gandhi
Happy 4th of July!
Mary Anne
Second Chances
Thursday, June 10th, 2010
As I was finishing up at the dentist office, I was speaking with my hygienist about some of the work I do with mentoring. I ended one of my sentences with, “Everyone deserves second chances.” At that very moment my dentist walked in and said, “You think everyone deserves second chances?” I told him I thought most everyone deserved a second chance. With that, my dentist went off with a litany of people he thought should never have a second chance. I noticed that I was getting annoyed, so I quietly responded, “I think many of us make mistakes, take the consequences, and deserve another chance.” His response was, “You know what we call a liberal? Someone who has never been mugged.” He concluded by telling me that most people don’t deserve second chances.
I left the office and started thinking about all the mistakes I have made and how so many people have given me a second chance. How long must we pay for a mistake we have made in the past?
Later that evening, I thought about how quickly our mind can go to labeling people and ideas, and about second chances. Do I really believe in second chances?
The universe must have heard my question because in the Sunday New York Times there was an article on parole. The article was about a woman who had committed a crime at 18 and paid for her mistake by serving time until age 41.
As she said in the article, “I still have those dreams of not being able to leave prison, like I’m still in there trying to get out. Why am I still struggling to get out?”
I realized that our minds can be more of a prison than sitting in a room with bars on the window. In what ways are we in prison with our thoughts, beliefs, and actions?
Yes, mistakes will be made and we must accept consequences of our choices. And, yes, I do believe in second chances.
Mary Anne
April Fool!
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Recently, the song Everybody Plays the Fool played on the radio and I found myself singing the lyrics:
“Everybody plays the fool, sometime
There’s no exception to the rule.”
The song made me think about all the times I was told to stop being silly – to stop playing the fool. I remember being told to stop laughing and to be serious. Somehow it was conveyed that you couldn’t be silly, giddy, or foolish. Yet, it is our joyful, playful self that we often forget. It is that part of ourselves that we hold back on and are afraid of showing in case we “make a fool of ourselves.”
There can be such freedom in bringing forth your most outrageous, wild, playful self that laughs and attempts some crazy ideas. My invitation to you this month is to be an April Fool! Do one outrageous, fun, and silly activity and notice how you feel. Play the Fool. And most of all, have fun!
Play “the Fool” ~ Mary Anne