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Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed in “I Have a Dream”:
“Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
Free at last. Free to be at last. Amen. When I discover my freedom within, I can choose who I’m going to be. I discover peace. That peace might not be forever. Yet, that peace gives hope. Amen. Amen.
Being free to be is what it is to be human. The journey of the freedom to be challenges me, revealing my fears as well.
Being older, perhaps even a little bit wiser, I get that nothing is truly personal: Sometimes my coin flips “bad” for the finite period of time. I endure the bad times. Oprah said, “Maintain hope for a brighter morning even during our darkest nights.”
I did so when I lost my job several years ago. I had thought I found purpose in the next job I took that eventually didn’t inspire. What I had found didn’t align with what I was up to nor did it give purpose.
Arriving at my critical inflection point, I had to reconcile my experience of my fear as the child growing up at home. I worked with Lance in looking at my fear, being with that fear. Together we discovered the more appropriate response to my fear. I accepted my childhood, that it could have been better. More importantly, I began to forgive me. I began to access my freedom to be.
I may have followed the less traveled path like my spiritual “twin” brother Dolph Lundgren, as we both continue to heal ourselves. I participate in therapy. I meditate daily. I train in martial arts. I got my amazing job, because of my best friend Chuck. Now I have the opportunity of making a difference, working with awesome decent people.
I recreated meaningfulness in Aikido. I’ve acknowledged all I have gotten from Sensei Dan and my love for the man he was and is for me. Sensei always listened for the greater man within me. He was always by my side. Even now, having passed away a few years ago.
As part of Sensei’s endearing legacy, I pass on all that he gave to me. Like O-Sensei, he believed that the possibility of peace in the world resides in those, who train in Aikido. I am the possibility of that as well. I honor his very wishes.
Maybe I’m free, at last. At least I’m free to be more of me, at last. I keep letting go of being right and making others wrong. I practice compassion and forgiveness for others and for me. I’m kind to others, and especially kinder to me.
Dolph said, “You have to love yourself.” Cheryl says, “Be kind to others. Be kind to yourself.” Yes, free to be, at last. I’m also learning, at last. Amen. Amen.
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Photo credit: Shutterstock
Lisa – I love this photo!!