Free Spirits

Who said I can’t be free?

Rewrite my history,

Be everything that I want to be,

Who said I can’t be free?

John Mayer

P/ Chwis, Wic wants to white a blog on fwee spiwits.

C/ Well, Polie, there are no freer spirits than you and me to guide him to a great blog.

P/ You think so Chwis?

C/ Absolutely Polie.

W/ What do you mean by free spirit Chris?

C/   Well, Wic, it’s about being able to do what you want, when you want to, how you want to and not listening to the negative thoughts or words of others.

W/ But if we live just like that isn’t there a little danger that other people could get hurt or you could get yourself in trouble…again. Can we really just do what we want regardless of all about us?

P/ Wic, I think Chwis is white in part and also, that your question is a good one. Maybe it’s more about seeing what you want to do and being fwee fwom the things that constwain most people. Things like their past, or their upbwinging or the limits that other are inhibited by and want to impose on us. So many people are pwisoners to their histowies, societies unspoken wules and the opinions of others. But in all we do we must be mindful of the wellbeing of others, and our own wellbeing. It’s not about wecklessness. After all, if we behave in a way so as to confirm the opinions of others, we achieve very little.

C/ Polie you’re so wise I sometimes don’t understand you. Ok so we musn’t hurt others and be reckless, whatever that is. But, Wic, there are always grumpy people who get upset by awesome free spirits… like me. They have so many silly, boring rules. It’s like they are trying not to be free. They want us all to behave like them, but they always moan about life and don’t seem happy. Let’s flip the hoof.

W/ Very deep for you Chris, but I think you are right. If you have something that others don’t have, such as a free spirit, you can offend without meaning to. But, boys, let us not forget it is all about spirit, free spirit.

P/ Yes, in the end we listen to our spiwit and let that guide us in weighing what we do instead of being guided by those about us. It may be others give good counsel but we weject limiting thoughts.

Let’s list what we think a fwee spiwit looks like. We’ll take turns and I start with a fwee spiwit is open to exploring places, ideas, spiwit, evewething.

C/ Yes that is us, fearless explorers. Spiritual Vikings.

W/ I see you remember our trip to Norway Chris. That Long Boat on the lake might be the reason (see Explorers in Oslo)!

C/ Long Boat on the lake, Wic? No idea what you’re talking about.

W/ Have a mind that is open, not to accept everything but at least examine it and weigh it.

C/ Enjoy life…especially food and drink.

P/ Enjoy life will do Chwis. How about feeling fwee to be yourself whether you laugh or cwy. To live authentically.

W/ Accept other people regardless of colour or culture or belief. Let them make the choice as to whether they can accept us.

C/ We should be able to make mistakes. I made one once and I might like to make another.

P/ Just the one Chwis? I am going to add live with passion.

W/ I think this is a good list. But, I go back to what Chris said earlier. If you are able to live as a free spirit, there will always be people who are offended even threatened because your freedom calls into question the way they live their lives. There have been many free spirits in history who have been rejected and even persecuted.

C/ That’s a bit extreme Wic!

P/ Yes, I agwee, but twue. I think the lesson is, there are always consequences to being diffewent. It’s alright to live life in such a way that others won’t understand but you may feel alone at times.

They laugh at me because I’m different.

I laugh at them because they’re all the same.

Anon

W/ But non-conformity has its own rewards. You’ll touch things other cannot, go places they will never go, understand the world in a way others can’t and feel more of the creators touch because you will shed the limitations that bind others.

C/ Still not digging the idea of persecution guys.

Better to live one day a tiger than a thousand years a sheep.

Tipu Sabib, Sultan of Mysore

P/ Wic, there are so many that need to shed the ties that bind them. We all come to this moment with a histowy, and inevitably, baggage that weighs us down and holds us back. Even you Chwis.

C/ You really think so Polie.

P/ Yes, even the fweest spiwit we know still has a way to go. There’s a place for honesty. A time to weview the things, the thoughts, the others that are in our lives and to ask if they are constwaining us from becoming the best us we can be, and the best us is the fweest us. Has the past, our upbwinging, the people we mix with brought us to a particular world view? Chwis, are you weady to stand back and question it?

W/ Yes, are we brave enough to reject it if it is tested and found wanting?

C/ Rejecting a lifestyle can be very uncomfortable Wic. After all, that could mean starting over and leaving a lot behind. Starting over sounds like hard work. Hard work needs lots of beer.

W/ Exactly Chwis, but being a free spirit means we are free to acknowledge mistakes and start all over, though I’m not sure about the beer. Our history does not define us because the future isn’t written yet.

C/ I’m glad I get things right the first time around.

P/ Well Chwis, what about those gwumpy people you mentioned? You wanted to flip them the hoof just because they didn’t agwee with you? We are fwee to honour others despite their world views and the life they live. Our behaviour is wooted in our own spiwits as our belief should be.

You need to stand back and take a look at what you are weacting to and ask if we have a higher purpose in doing so, or are we weacting for the sake of weacting?

W/ You see Chris, we can become as much a prisoner of our own prejudices if we shun something purely because we don’t like it or it’s conventional.

C/ So your saying I must use my freedom of spirit to live free of the prejudices of grumpy people?

I never worry about people who talk behind my back. The’re behind me for a reason.

Anon

P/ Exactly Chwis. We choose to leave things better than we found them. We exercise our fweedom for a higher purpose because as fwee spirits we can.

W/ And we can ride our bikes all day long if we choose to do so, and enjoy a beer and laugh together or we can take ourselves away to the countryside and sit in the sun and meditate or read, or listen to music, or…so many things. We will define our own futures.

P/ There’s a book you might enjoy Chwis.

C/ Is it a film as well?

P/ No Chwis, I don’t think so. It’s called Johnathon Livingston Seagull and its about a fwee spiwit. It’s short but vewy challenging. You’ll like it.

C/ I’d like it a lot more of you were to read it to me Polie.

P/ I suppose I could.