Life is seeking to be free through us
Each day brings with it challenges to be expressive, empowered, purposeful and fulfilled. How do we find our path through the various goals vying for our attention? Which ones really matter on our authentic path? I try to think of it this way: Life wants to be free! Life wants to experience the joy and sorrow of being alive.
How much of my time do I spend not doing that? I often have a narrative of what I must accomplish: job, school, child, status, stability. Yet I see my mentors get to the end of their lives and reflect that it was just a continuous stream of experiences. My elders often share about the realization of the importance of connection and authentic experiences in their lives over everything else. The striving for accomplishments, in and of itself, doesn’t lead anywhere. What fulfills me is the accomplishments interspersed with the satisfaction of daily life. It is not one over the other.
I hear that, I know that, but I often don’t give time to really ponder what implications this perspective has. I continue down a path towards something handed to me from the culture, a plan of a career and a certain set of physical situations I want to obtain, like a nice place to live and a good school for my daughter.
Life becomes free through us
I suspect that what is really going on is life seeking to be free. It does that through each of us. I am faced with challenges commensurate with my particular need to be free. It becomes important to separate what I want for myself from what society often implies that I should want.
The paradox is that by becoming free—by disengaging from the external values of money and status, safety and predictability—I become more free to actually engage in those things in a way that makes a difference. I have turned off the TV in my life, yet I still receive enough news to get involved in things that matter to me. I have struggled to heal my need to be liked by others at any cost, and gained more freedom to be myself, yet as a result found even more authentic connection with the people in my life.
I suspect life needs us to wake up and grab hold of it, letting go of everything that does not lead toward a greater experience of life. Through meaningful history selection and experiences of synchronicity we are brought challenges that help us evolve toward greater self-expression, purpose, and fulfillment. They happen every day, and the more we can see them and catch those opportunities, the faster we grow on our path. The need for the soul to break free is very great, and so the challenges arising around us are very great. To me, that is encouragement.