Freedom – what is it?


Fourth of July, Memorial Day, and Veteran’s Day are all holidays that usually have references to them about freedom and the freedom we enjoy here is this country. Mostly the phrases usually talk about how our freedom isn’t free and has been paid in blood by those men and women in our armed forces. I honer and respect those men and women who have chosen to join the US armed services. I honer them for their service and their willingness. I may not agree with what they have been sent to do, however, I can and do distance that from the people themselves. I do long for the day when they are not needed to serve. I grieve for how many return broken and battered by the service.

What annoys me about this whole thing is the idea that Freedom is granted, taken from, or given to any one of us. The freedom that is usually referred to in these cases is a freedom of external circumstances. That freedom is about the attitudes, society, and cultures that exist around you. It is outside of a person and is dependent of powers that you may feel you have no control over. It is about the laws of the land and how they are enforced. True Freedom is not granted by any one. It can not be taken from you. Laws have no affect over it. Freedom of this nature is not affected by outside forces; it is not removed by the whimsy of others. It is not, ever, something that people must shed blood and die for. It exists within all of us, all of the time.

Most of the definitions of freedom I looked up talk about external circumstances. This one, however, I thought might just come close to what Freedom is: the power to determine action without restraint. The reason I think it might be close is because it says “determine” actions. That means you are the one who is making the choice. Freedom means that is every moment you have the choice to determine how you are going to respond to the events and circumstances in your life. Freedom means realizing that no one has to tell you to be what to feel and think without you being willing to agree to it. Freedom is being unrestrained by external circumstances in your thoughts, emotions, words, and beliefs. That Freedom brings peace, serenity, and balance, and nothing can remove it or disturb it. It will always belong to you.

In love and light