Breaking Free

“Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, and walk through it, step by step. There’s no sun there, no moon, no direction, no sense of time. Just fine white sand swirling up into the sky like pulverized bones. That’s the kind of sandstorm you need to imagine.

And you really will have to make it through that violent, metaphysical, symbolic storm. No matter how metaphysical or symbolic it might be, make no mistake about it: it will cut through flesh like a thousand razor blades. People will bleed there, and you will bleed too. Hot, red blood. You’ll catch that blood in your hands, your own blood and the blood of others.

And once the storm is over you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”

-Haruki Murakami

Auj says...

At some point in our lives, we all want to break free from something. For most, it would be the usual topics of vices -- to try to break away from smoking or from eating like a boar. For some, it may be about breaking free from the usual patterns and daily routine like simply working too much. For others, it may be about escaping from the chains of the traditional. For them, it's about coming out.

Various reasons that circle around each other like threads striving to get through the needle's hole. And right there and then, we arrive at something common. We feel weak and incapacitated as we let so much of ourselves to control us. The obsessions. The desires. The addictions. The unchanging habits. How do we loosen its grip around us?

There is no solid answer that we can give or anybody else's can about this. Does it live in us? Does it control us? If so, why do we accept defeat and admit that the mere habit is stronger than us? Which specific part of our body is it located? Where does it creep in? How does it get out?

One study said that every memory we make is laid in each of our cells. That time when you were hurt. That time you caused the hurt. That time you were misunderstood. That time you misunderstood. That time you were put down. That time you have put down someone. So you can just imagine how all these can possibly seep in inside our body, be stored in cells, and find our bodies just plainly responding to what we have just gotten used to but also from what's programmed already. The only question we'll once again come back to is that, who would be running the show, is it gonna be you or is it gonna be your body?

This leads us to the regaining of a perspective that opens our eyes to what is more real about being true. The realization of the immense thought that breaking free is more than just getting to finally do the things that you've always wanted to do but more intensely about touching freedom, holding it like yours, and equips you with sufficient knowledge and impressive wisdom to make the 'right' decisions 'always'. It is simply about learning what is finally best for us, and to not deprive ourselves of it. Hence, this makes us an enlightenment to others -- a greater blessing that you may never have wished for a lot thinking you are unlovely or unworthy.

If we want to do things at our best in complete passion and fulfillment, we should stop acting like a cantankerous child and just grow up. Remember, that getting to know one's self is so essential that it is impossible for us to break free unless we realize this.

It would really be one hell of a job to hold on those reins but we can push ourselves more by reminding ourselves that we are our own's bosses.

You will know you are free when you no longer have to be you.

Then live accordingly.

Hold her hand. And let her take yours.

Did you notice that? We are one.
We are free to love each other.

Dori says..

Through time and life experiences, my belief about fate has evolved from the mañana mentality where during my early teens I'd always wait for the last minute before doing things and hope for a miracle, then to the que sera sera logic in my twenties thinking that even if I don't do anything life will treat me kind if that was my palm reading or stroke of luck, to now the power of thoughts and having control over shaping my own destiny, walking by faith and grace.

As novelist Aldous Huxley once wrote, "There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self." One corner. It sounds flyspeck, but the fact remains your shadow does invade that substantial light no matter how vast the universe is. It rings true also that if you want to weather any storm and be alive to see calmness and rainbow-colored freedom, you have to master yourself, know what will keep you dancing in the turbulent rain, and most of all when to step back if thunder and lightning is too much for you to bear.

I totally agree true freedom can be experienced when no storm is tumultous enough to crash you from inside; when after all the stupid mistakes, the stubbornness, the bloated ego, the resistance to change, the refusal to grow, and the denial of truth, you rise above your own self and follow the One Master. Only then can you feel breaking free from all the cares of this world and serve as pathway for others to see the light. Splendid. Riveting.

Knowing what will make and break you will make your life so much more bearable and thus empower you to create beautiful relationships, nurturing and loving. When you finally understand how to be like a child in constant wonder and to relive your innocence, that's breaking free.

And yes, realizing that love is the reason why we were created, we are so free.

To touch her hand and feel love, that's blissful freedom.