The Chains on Freedom

“When your world's crashing down
like you've lost every round
Stand your ground
And ring the bells of freedom”
– “Bells of Freedom” - Bon Jovi

“We hold these truths to be self-evident…”

It’s the beginning of one of the most powerful documents ever written. It lays out the basic assumptions of an individual’s rights and freedoms. When you think about it, you can’t help but have a big rush of feelings and thoughts. Hold on to those for a second and walk with me on a related topic.

Freedom…we all want it, right? No one would willingly place themselves in slavery or servitude…would they?

Take a look around, in fact; take a good look at your own life. Let’s see exactly how “free” you are.

Can you pick up and leave whenever you want? Probably not.
Can you knock down your house and build a glass shack on stilts? Not if you live in a neighborhood community.
Can you open your front door and let your dog run around the neighborhood? Doubt it.

But, really…that’s not the kinds of freedom I wanna talk about today. :-)

I want to see you all freed from the chains that you have willingly placed around your own spirits. The chains of your mistakes, you personal judgments, your weaknesses, your suffering. These are the true things that keep you from being free.

We are weighed down with all the shit from this world and, as if that wasn’t enough, we continue to heap it on ourselves. And every chain that we add, while it seems to fit us so well, is simply locking our spirits and heart down closer to this world.

Remember…this world is only meant for one purpose. That’s to keep you from focusing on the important parts of life. Heart, Spirit, Love…these are the important parts of life. Everything else? That’s just the shit that keeps you from living a true, whole life.

Now, if I had a magic skeleton key that could drop all your chains at the same time and free your heart and spirit to fly…I’d be freeing you right now. But, unfortunately, there is no such silver bullet. It’s a process, one that requires a bit of work.

See, the only one that can take the chains off of you, is you. Hey, you put ‘em on…you take ‘em off. :-)

The hardest part is going to be actually recognizing the chains that you wear. See, we wear some of them for SO long that we come to think of them as an integral part of our lives. Sometimes it takes asking another to help for you to see that you wear them at all.

The good news? What? You want GOOD NEWS? :-) You CAN do it. There is really nothing that can stop you if you decide that you WANT to be free.

It will take some dedicated self-searching, self-awareness, and openness, but you CAN unlock every chain that you wear. Remember that you don’t HAVE to do this alone. The people that love you can become a great source of help in picking these damn locks. Sometimes, they can make the work easy and share the burden of lifting those chains from your neck. That’s why they’ve been placed in your life.

So tell me…what truths do you hold to be self-evident? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Or are you going to aim a bit higher?

How about Heart, Spirit, and a whole life free from the bonds of this world?

Yea…I think that might work for me. See ya on the other side!