Free to Be

"Give the world the gift of YOU. Be yourself." ~ Susan Larison Danz

 

When I was a young child in the early 70's, I remember a television special (I think it was on television, anyway) with the title Free to Be You and Me.  I can't quite remember it, and I think I only saw it once, but the title and overall feeling of whatever this was made such an impression on my young mind and heart that I never forgot how it felt.  

I looked it up just now, and I really don't think I ever have.  There are all sorts of entries.  I vaguely recall music.  I do remember Marlo Thomas, smiling.

But most of all, I remember the words:  Free to Be You and Me

It was joyful and exuberant, as I recall.  It felt like a celebration.  It still has much to teach us.

Hat photo by Susan Larison Danz.

Authenticity and Spirituality

"Authenticity brings invisible people to life!" ~ Susan Larison Danz

Authenticity and Spirituality.  You really can't separate the two.  An authentically spiritual path is a path that is freely explored.  

How many times can I say it?  We are not here to be clones, robots, or to echo one another in echo chambers.

We are here to be uniquely expressed aspects of the Divine.   We wouldn't bother to be here at all if the idea was to be the same, or to always agree.  

It is of very great concern to me that uniformity of opinion seems to be elevated above all things, these days.  Not only is that an unattainable goal, it is not an attractive one.  It has nothing to do with an authentically spiritual life.  I'm already in "disagreement" with such an impossible and undesirable notion.  It is fundamentalism, that's what it is, the most rigid form of thought - such notions lead to the very OPPOSITE of a spiritual path.  And you can see it, very visibly, in the stress and discord that results.

We are here to celebrate our choices.  Only the most oppressive forms of non-spiritual thought demand absolute conformity, and that is not a characteristic of the open-hearted Divine.

Why we have strayed so very far from such basic spiritual concepts, even in parts of the "spiritual community" which never would have advocated for this in the past, is indeed troubling to me.  

Honesty.  Authenticity.  Non-judgment.  Empathy.  Forgiveness.  We all do it imperfectly.   These are fundamental aspects of Unconditional Love, the very Center.  "Fundamentalism" for its own sake, absent of Divine Unconditional Love, is just that: fundamentalism.  Those who cling to it can insist all they like and even demand or oppress - it doesn't make any of it Real or True.

 

 

Shadow photo by Susan Larison Danz.

 

Trust and Fear

"It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves." ~ Henry David Thoreau

Listen to today's program on The Frontier Beyond Fear broadcast:  Trust and Fear: Navigating with Wisdom

I honestly explore how Spirituality can provide us with the Trust and Wisdom we need to make solid choices when confronting fear. Not only will we make better choices going forward, we will be comfortable with those choices. If you feel discomfort with a choice, it's time to look at it more deeply.

 

Whether on this day, you are celebrating the first day of Spring or of Autumn, today is an excellent day to consult your inner compass. We make imperfect choices all the time, as this is human, but being mindful of our unhealthy relationship with fear can make all the difference.

 

We also listen to wisdom from Henry David Thoreau's Walden, some deeply profound words to guide us on our paths forward. 

Blossoms by the Bridge photo by Susan Larison Danz.

 

 

Free Spirit

"Born free, as free as the wind blows
As free as the grass grows
Born free to follow your heart . . ." ~ Don Black (lyrics)

When I was young, I used to hear this song quite often.  At some point, it became "elevator music" in the 1970's, and it always caught my attention.  Later, I liked to play it on the piano.

Why?

Because it's true.

Often children remember things that we far too often forget as adults.  And especially, lately.

 

 

Path photo by Susan Larison Danz.

  

On This Day, November 9

"Shining true and smiling back at all who wait to cross.  There is no loss." 

~ Kansas, The Wall

On This Day in History, November 9, 1989: "East German officials today opened the Berlin Wall, allowing travel from East to West Berlin..." 

And that's not all this date carries, for those who might look, for those who remember.

We get to choose.

We get to choose what sort of a November 9 THIS one is going to be.

I feel we are choosing already, many of us. I'm personally choosing the same thing I chose yesterday, in what might feel like an imperfectly perfect kind of a way (that's why we chose to be human).

We can simply choose to choose Love.

L-O-V-E

The choice doesn't need to appear to be perfect. Just by existing, it IS. It's about honest, heartfelt intent, in the most human of ways.

I remember early November 1989, perhaps more in feelings than in details. It was like some kind of a Miracle, back then, inexplicable, yet Real.

How could it be?

It simply was.

I remember the years leading up to it. I remember the years that came after. No, not all the details. I remember the feelings.

On November 10, they started tearing the wall down. I DO remember at least some of those details. I was 25 years old. And I had recently fallen myself - that Fall, I had fallen in love. I remember studying the images, astonished. They didn't arrive quite as rapidly in those days, but still, we all watched. I remember the front page of the newspaper. I remember the evening news. And we did already have cable.

We tended to believe back then that the wall would never actually fall (except through the madness of mutual destruction). I remember a friend telling me what it was like to have visited there, how forbidding it actually was - traveling there wasn't needed to feel it - we felt it in plenty of ways. Falling like that, truthfully, it wasn't even "a concept", for a very long time, not for most of us. As long as many of us could remember, that wall simply >was<. Yet fall it did. And it all came about in a way nobody expected.

It's time to begin.

It's time to continue.

We get to choose.

November 9.


Photo from July 1, 1988, permitted use with this attribution from Wikimedia Commons: By Neptuul (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]