Thursday, March 19

In the land of the free...

***Note*** This is NOT a bashing post! I’m not comparing freedoms in any other places. I happen to love the country I live in and consider it a GREAT blessing. If you want to argue and point out how bad it is in other places…feel free, just don’t do it here. :-)


“Ring the bells, ring them loud
Let them ring here and now
Just reach out and ring the bells of freedom
When your world's crashing down like you've lost every round
Stand your ground
And ring the bells of freedom”
Bon Jovi – Bells of Freedom


So, I was listening to a comedian this morning and he was ranting about the misnomer or America being the land of the free. He was really quite funny. However, he got me thinking. See, he was listing off all the things that you really aren’t free to just go do. Silly things, like how you need a license to catch a fish, a license to drive…hell you even need a license to get married!! :-)

And as I was thinking about it, really laughing my ass off at him, I found myself thinking about all the different ways that we are NOT free, independent of any worldly laws or rules. And I realized that in SO many different ways, we are not free.

OK, use this as an example…given that in the world today, you can’t just go running down the street naked …but WOULD you if you could? Or are you restricted simply by yourself?

Can you remember back to a time when you were personally free? My son is almost 3 years old and he’s the freest soul that I know. :-) See, he’s not restricted by any sort of social conditioning or fears. He regularly runs away from me butt ass naked! He likes to take the trash out for me and put it outside the door…and he’ll do it naked too!

Too often, I think that we are held back by ourselves. How many times have you NOT done something because your mind conjured up the worst possible scenario and you believed it or were simply too afraid to take the risk?

Somewhere along the way of growing up, we were taught that fear. Fear of rejection, fear of loss, fear of embarrassment, fear of anything. Think about your life, how many decisions have you made based on those fears? A lot I’m guessing.

We were not made to live in fear of life. Life is a beautiful thing that s meant to be embraced and experienced. All of it.

If you want to make the BIGGEST improvement and greatest change in your life this year, then conquer your fear of life every time that you can. I’m not saying that you’ll be able to EVERY time, but each time you can will make the next time easier.

You just might be amazed at the differences in your life. If anything, you’ll gain the confidence in yourself that you CAN do it. That confidence alone will make a difference in your life.

Now, I’m NOT saying be stupid about it. Don’t swap common sense for fearlessness. But when something comes up, instead of the typical kneejerk reaction of saying no…give it a try and see what happens.

If anything, you’ll have a new story to tell people. :-)

Now, if you’ll excuse me…I’m going to go run around naked for a bit...with bells on!!

1 comment:

Susan said...

I'm with you on loving my country. I guess that's the kind of freedom they had in the Garden of Eden. But really, is it freedom if there's no one around to judge you? Or maybe that is freedom. =)