My new book has been out in the world for a few months now. To bring it into the world, we hosted a gentle ceremony in South Africa in August; and then two recent events in Maleny, and then Melbourne Australia. I am feeling grateful.
I’ve also been quiet for some weeks, aware that I felt depleted and needed to give some space to my soul – to create a fallow few weeks to see if new energies might arise.
I’ve also noticed afresh just how busy with activity people are. Again, an over-emphasis on action/activity/intervention – lacking a balance with the other side of a living social practice that includes action and observation, intervention and reflection, fast and slow.
Which brings me to the title – the rigour of freedom. I had a dream this week in which for a moment I was in a festival, which then became a prison – and in waking up I saw afresh how I’d succumbed to my own prison. The prison of obligation, activity, lists of ‘to-do’s’, compliances, audit’s. A madness of hamster-on-a-wheel like perpetual motion that is hyper-capitalism’s machine-like necessity. The dream reminded me to step into the rigour of my own freedom. I recognised that I need to say No more often!
- to clear the diary for a day;
- to walk into the wilderness;
- to awake and go to the waterhole;
- to take time to reflect on the work I am doing so it’s done with presence, quality and attunement to the inside-out flow of energy;
- to give time to observation, not just interventions of my own making.
What would it take to step into the rigour of your freedom, not be imprisoned by a prison of your own making?