Four Lessons for Me (and maybe you) from Freedom and Creation

First published on April 30, 2018

I clear my mind. Well, a little, anyway. I clear it, to see what emerges in this writing, the first time I'm writing on the train for a while. And then it gets a little less clear because I forget to keep it clear and read some emails instead.

These pieces, written in 12 minutes or so, were an exercise. An exercise in creation, and beating Resistance. And also an exercise in freedom. What if there's no time to think, and there's only time to create? What would happen then?

And, surprisingly, things happen. Things are created. Sometimes they end up being read 800 times, sometimes less than 20.

And, with a breath, and a recommitment to the freedom of creation, what will emerge today?

Nature has a strange effect on us. It reconnects us to us. I don't know why that is, but nature is almost always a route to presence, to the real, unadulterated, honest you. And me. It is invigorating. Seek it more. 

A collection of people carries an energy. Maybe one day we'll find the science behind it - some tiny particle which means that a group of people feel collectively. So a crowd of unruly, joyful children lead us to feeling one way, and a crowd of worn out commuters lead us to feeling a different way. Pay attention to this. Notice the people around you. 

It's scary to be vulnerable. It feels like there are people we can't be vulnerable with. But the truth is that by not being vulnerable with those people we just - almost all the time - make being vulnerable seem more scary. And, almost all the time, if we leaned into vulnerability just a few more percent, we would learn that actually, it's safe to be a little more vulnerable. A little more open. A little more us. So lean that way. Give yourself a chance to be brave, a chance to learn that you can. 

The answers are always within. It's so hard to see this, but deep in us are the answers to almost all our wants, our 'needs', our suffering, our ambitions and our struggles. I can't always see this. Sometimes I know it deeply, sometimes I 'know it' intellectually, but I can't feel it at all. But I believe it, I think. Most of the time. So try it, when you can.