Centre for Vital Elders

Have you noticed how freedom affects our ability to be creative in our lives and work?

I’m talking more about the ‘inner’ freedom we have, or don’t have, to express ourselves rather than the ‘outer’ freedom where we perceive others to limit us, and I acknowledge that these are closely inter-related.

So what has freedom to do with creativity? For me, freedom has a lot to do with self expression and it is through our self expression that we manifest our creativity.

You can read a little more about this in The Man in the Yellow Jacket.

I’m sure we’ve all experienced the times when we feel really passionate about something and we break free of all limitations.

It’s a great power we have to be imaginative, innovative and play with all possibilities.

And sometimes we find ourselves stuck, or the groups we are working with get bogged down and not able to see a way forward.

This would be the time to bring forward this energy of freedom and creativity within us, and too often it seems we are not able to. For some reason we do not feel free to express ourselves, to say what needs to be said to unblock the blockage and move on.

It seems to me our organisations are deliberately designed to maintain the status quo, and we put structures and policies in place to make sure nothing changes too much. And we let these limit our freedom of expression.

Indigenous cultures recognised this challenge and how dangerous it was for the people to get stuck in a rut and become less passionate about their lives. In some cases they would have a society within the tribe whose role it was to ensure the people kept breaking free from any self limiting beliefs they created for themselves.

Maybe we could do with this in our communities and organisations. Call in the court jester or the sacred clowns!

In what ways are we free to tell the truth and what compels us to tell lies?

These questions came to me out of a recent discussion, Truth and Lies, where for me, there was an element missing, or at least not well represented.

This element is the ‘inner self’ and how free we are. In the many decisions we face in our lives there is no one holding a gun to our head telling us we must lie to get what we want. But it seems to me there might be a facet of our inner self that is having the same effect and taking away our freedom to be who we are.

And the freedom to be who we are is, from my perspective, the primary freedom.

It feels easier to discuss lies in connection with the outer world. For example people increasingly lie about their qualifications on job application forms. Does this lie develop from an inner lie these people are holding about themselves, about their identity perhaps. Maybe they cannot be happy with just who they are, they believe they can be happy if they pretend to be someone else with more qualifications. Is this not just another lie?

Another aspect of lying is not telling other people the truth, what you really believe, because of some concern you have about how they will react.

It seems to me that this is very arrogant and disrespectful. Am I alone in wanting to take responsibility for my own responses? Surely if some engages with me through their concerns about my reactions, they are not actually engaging with me at all but with some false image of me they have created.

What if we taught ourselves and our children to take responsibility for our own emotions? What difference would this begin to make in the world?

So what is needed for us to share more of who we are with each other?
 

Here is a great Stones website - http://www.americanexpress.com/uk/stones//

Reminds me of when I took my younger brother (16 years younger) to see the Stones at Wembley. Well it sounded like them but from where I was sitting it could have been anyone!
And on the way back, driving home north to Hull on a deserted M1, all of a sudden the everything turned bright blue and flashing, and I got done for speeding for the first time.

At age 98, Bill Tapia’ on course to become one of the world’s oldest performing musicians.

“I’ve got hundreds of people come up and ask me, ‘What do you do? Do you take care of yourself?’ ” Tapia said. “You just kind of get along and get going.”

Still, Tapia admits that he is slowing down. He quit smoking at age 85, two years before cutting down a rigorous exercise regimen that included lifting weights, walking and riding his bicycle. Failing vision prevents him from driving. But according to Tapia, his mind and his ukulele-strumming hands are just as skilled as ever.

“I live for music,” Tapia said. “Wherever there’s music I want to be there, and I hope I can make music and not stop doing it until I die.”

Read the full story here

“If a child hasn’t been given spiritual values within the family setting, they have no familiarity with the values that are necessary for the just and peaceful functioning in society.” 
–Eunice Baumann-Nelson, Ph.D, PENOBSCOT 

When we are born, we start with a beautiful empty mind ready to be given our beliefs, attitudes, habits and expectations. Most of our true learning comes from watching the actions of others. As we watch our family or relatives, whatever their actions and values are, so will be the children’s values and acts. If we see our families living a just and peaceful way of life, so then will the children. If we see our family shouting, arguing and hateful, so will it be for the children. The cycle of life - baby, youth, adult and Elder is all connected. If the older ones have good values, it will be connected to the children. 

I am grateful to White Bison for these meditations which I pass on with respect.

I have had a number of conversations about truth and lies since I wrote a piece recently called Religion and Lies, and I have been reflecting on a number of issues that came forward, in particular, what is truth? And one person’s truth is another persons lies.

And it occurs to me that if the statement ‘one person’s truth is another persons lies’ is true, then this is probably at the root of most of the problems we face individually and in the world and it would be worth further investigation.

But how can we tell what is truth and what is lies? If someone is telling us that a particular object is a chair, then, even with beginners mind, we can assess whether this object looks like and feels like what we understand a chair to be, and we can sit on it and test whether if performs the function of a chair. And we can decide whether we am being told the truth or not.

Now, if I’m faced with something less ‘physical’ than a chair, say a thought or an opinion, what is the measure I can use? For example, what if I have the thought ‘I am not good enough’, how do I know if this is the truth or a lie. Well the first challenge is that we tend to think all our thoughts are true! But this is another story.

If I was serious about exploring my thoughts then I might ask myself ‘does this thought make me happy or not?’ (I have made an assumption here that it is our truth that we are entitled to be happy – you may not agree with this). And if it doesn’t I can decide it is a lie.

So one measure of truth could be, does this thought, idea, opinion, attitude, or belief (and the actions that result) move me closer to happiness, love, joy, compassion and inclusiveness, or does it move me further away.

If it moves me closer it’s the truth. If it moves me away from, it’s a lie.