Inner Freedom

 



“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on and individual level. It's got to happen inside first. You can take away a man's political freedom and you won't hurt him- unless you take away his freedom to feel. That can destroy him. That kind of freedom can't be granted. Nobody can win it for you.” Jim Morrison

The Value of Stories

"I would ask you to remember only this one thing," said Badger. "The stories people tell have a way of taking care of them. If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive. That is why we put these stories in each other's memory. This is how people care for themselves. One day you will be good story-tellers. Never forget these obligations."

Crow and Weasel by Barry Lopez
North Point Press
1990







... all I would add is that you strive to tell stories consciously. L.

Be Well,
Be Happy,
BE

In Cases of Stubborn Attachment

I’m sure you’ve seen movies where someone has to yell at a beloved animal friend to make it leave for its own good. Sometimes it is necessary to do this with other human beings who have become too attached to us and are stuck in imagination about the relationship.  If they are allowed to remain so emotionally attached they will never get unstuck, they will never grow.

So… after many suggestions, conversations and exhortations about the need for them to expand their horizons, if the resistance to doing so is so great that they are unable to move forward, we take a deep breath, make our faces look ugly and do it. We Act.  Hearts breaking, we put on a great show and shout, “shoo!!!” gesticulating wildly at them. We force them out of their self imposed prisons -  we force them to fly. The heart aches, but there it is, the bare naked truth; it is time for change. The love for these dear ones is not gone from the heart, if anything it is greater than ever. “I wish you all the best." you think. and pray for their safety and well being day and night. And you grin and bear what comes, donning your new masks every time you see them again. Some spit on you, some play monstrous head games, some try to kill you, or destroy you however they can. “One day”, you pray, “one day they will understand.” Is that so? I remind myself.

May you hear with ears and heart that can hear and may you BE Blessed and Blessed and Blessed. Amen, Amen and Amen!
L.

The Empty Space

I'm  currently re- reading "The Empty Space, A Book About the Theater: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate" by Peter Brook. I found it again while unpacking some old books I brought back to Florida from my old storage space in New York recently .  Brook's thoughts suit me now during this long hiatus, in this chilly rain.  My favorite line in the book is at the beginning of Chapter One: Deadly in which Brook talks about what he calls "Deadly" theater. It reminds me of how things are, really. He says:

"I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theater to be engaged."

This is how we are, as Shakespear noticed, "All actors on a stage." All of us, acting on the stage of life - somnambulating. Some who know this also know the audience is God, the All, The Power, The Force. Here we are, we are born into this place. We come with (some say) a purpose, to right wrongs from past lives, to be good, to do right. Unfortunately we forget that soon after birth and are left feeling our way about the dark to find and reach the goal or goals. As I read Mr. Brook's little book, his words shine light in empty spaces in me. Shorn of all desire to be anything other than what I Am now, in this moment, and this moment, his intelligent words stream into this old house tickling ancient  ghosts who chortle at what they once were, as they glimpse their old carcasses in the internal mirror. No longer in deep mourning and regret and filled with all their clutter and clatter, it is very quiet in here, in this empty space. I look forward to the rest of the book, the "Holy, Rough, and Immediate", and wonder what news they will bring. So far this meal, being eaten again in a different time, eons away from where I was when I first read the book,  is so rich I must take it in small bites. Care filled Patience is required lest I forget My Self.

Remember
Be Peace
BE