Free to Choose

Our everyday routine can get drab.  If you watch enough TV, it can appear as though everyone is having the time of their lives with one adventure after another.  You can fnd the miraculous in your everyday life, finding the unique in the mundane, observing the less noticeable things each day. It may be the sound of birds chirping, the wind rustling the trees or a smile on someone's face.  Let yourself find the fascination in something that others might shrug off. Take notice of the little things.  Life is brimming over with wondrous, spectacular happenings.  You simply need to open yourself to those precious moments that provide perspective for the rest of your day. 

No one has taken your freedom away.  You may have relinquinshed it for reasons known or unknown. But you've always been free---free to choose.  And you have been choosing.  You may have been choosing not to be free.  Then you felt stifled, so you rebelled, but this was an important part of your journey because it helped you break out and loosen the chains around you.  You have always been free.  Celebrate it!  Share it with others.  Tell yourself & others you are free to trust and follow your heart. 

Most of us have an active imagination. We have the power to visualize & create in our minds what we cannot yet see with our eyes.  The problem is that many of us use this power to visualize events we'd rather not see.  We conjure up all sorts of images about the bad things that could happen.  It's time to use that creative power to create pictures of all the good we would like to see in our lives.  Create a picture you can see.  Involve all your senses.  Visualize yourself touching, hearing, speaking, smelling & feeling.  Charge your picture with as much emotional energy as you can.  If you don't know what to wish for, ask yourself & ask God to show you.  See yourself doing the things you'd like to do.  Take the time to use your creative power of visualization to create the life you want.  Take the time to see yourself being happy. 

There is a whole world outside your door, waiting to touch you, soothe you & heal you.  There is an entire world out there waiting to help you open your heart & nurture your soul.  Open your eyes, open your senses, open your heart.  Walk out your door & look around.  You'll be shown.  You'll be guided.  Your heart will lead you where you need to be.  Listen, look & feel. 

You don't have to let people control you.  You don't have to scream & tell them they are wrong.  That's letting them control you. When someone tries to control, they are limiting your love & growth.  Any attempt to control others puts strings, cords, tentacles that smother & hold back in ways that don't heal.  As you proceed along this journey, you will become more sensitive to attempts to control.  You will begin to see & feel how it pulls you & bothers you.  You can quietly recognize it as control.  Whether the person is a family member, friend or acquaintance, you can recognize control for what it is...a block to the heart, a hindrance to love.  Set yourself free from control.  Open your heart. 

Don't wait for things to change.  The change you are waiting for will come from within you.  Start to nurture yourself through each stage.  Waiting for things to change is a tiresome, irritating process but embracing your growth is exciting.  It can become a positive challenge that can turn life into a vital, interactive process.  The moment we surrender to  this process, something happens.  A new lesson emerges.  We discover we can choose joy & freedom.  Soon we come to a new conclusion about ourselves & about life.  Then our lives begin to change.  The change we've been waiting for happens and it happens as a result of our own process--not because we waited for something or someone to change.  Trust this process of change.  You no longer have to wait for something to happen.  It is happening now.  Let the process become living, interactive, magical. 

"Let me find grace in the real world, release in the world of my imagination & joy in both.
Help me to notice the lessons in Your world--
the turtle to remind me to  slow down;
the peach & the lilac to remind me of what in life is sweet;
the charred piece of wood to remind me that I, too, have been through the fire;
the tall tree bending in the wind to remind me that I may be bent, but not broken.
And let me have a hope that bears out."

(selected readings from Five Good Minutes by Jeffrey Brantley, Journey to the Heart by Melody Beattle, & Pocket Prayers by June Cotner)