Free to be Me

I’ve been wanting to write about freedom and got a little side tracked with my last blog. Oh,, I know it’s about freedom and I guess I had to say what I did. I was a little caught up in it. Those freedoms have been fought for and won....freedoms every human being deserves to have. Uh-oh...with that last statement I can feel myself wanting to go in another direction. Not this time, my friends! This time I’m sticking to the subject.

My turning seventy turned out to be a new, almost magical, beginning. I dreaded it beforehand. There’s something about those decade numbers that kind of throw us a curve. I think we’re more apt to think of it as the end of something rather than a beginning. But it’s both. There can be no beginning without an ending and there’s no end without a beginning. So here I was, experiencing both. To be honest with you though, I didn’t really start to see the beginning until the day after. Hummmm....I wonder which we celebrate on our birthdays...the beginning or the end? Whoa! Starting to wander off again.

I couldn’t tell you exactly when it happened.....whether it was on my birthday or the day after. Whichever it was doesn’t matter. What does matter is that I experienced a great sense of freedom...the freedom to be me. In case you don’t realize the impact of that, let me tell you, it is a great big WOW! You know the kind of ‘wow’ I mean. The comics always picture it as a brightly lit lightbulb. It’s the ‘wow moment’ when we suddenly see and understand something that’s eluded us. But this, my friends, this is more than that. This is HUGE!

It’s huge because I’d spent the majority of my life trying to become.... become an adult (not such a great goal)....become educated/knowledgeable....become successful.....become not only what others expected, but what I came to expect of myself. I was always trying to become. All of a sudden I realized that if I hadn’t become yet, I may as well stop trying.

When I stopped trying, the most wonderful thing happened! It set me free! I don’t know how others see me but in my mind I’m a small child laughing, jumping and skipping along while holding onto God’s hand.

I am free to be that child of God...not only of God, but with God. I know, without a doubt, I am God’s child and as His/Her child, I am loved, protected, loved, guided and loved ('loved' deserves to be repeated).   I know I am free to be the child because God is holding my hand and will never let go. The real freedom is in following God’s lead.  In trusting Him/Her  completely, I am free to be the me God means me to be.