Reiki Thoughts for the Day

Freedom.  We’ve all seen the emails the past few years about our freedoms as US citizens being taken away.  They started during the “W” years after 9/11, and although they seem to have slowed during the Obama administration, I still get a few, and hear grumblings from acquaintances.  But what exactly is freedom?  Isn’t it a relative term that we each apply to our own lives?

Last night, Greg and I went to an outdoor concert and fireworks display at Nashville Shores. As we stood on the sand beach of Percy Priest Lake watching the fireworks explode in the Nashville sky, I couldn’t help but think about what freedom meant to me. The evening started with a concert by Burning Las Vegas. While we were listening to the concert, my mind was watching all the couples, young and old, that were holding hands on the beach, and especially those that were dancing in the sand. I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if Greg and I joined the dancing couples in front of the crowd.

When it was time for the fireworks, the park turned off the lights and beach went dark. At first we just stood there watching, occasionally touching each others hand. I put my arm on Greg’s shoulder, and then finally around his shoulders. All the time I was thinking how pathetic this whole scenario was. Why did we have to wait until the beach was pitch black to share even the smallest touch of affection?

There are no laws that state Greg and I can’t hold hands in public. The park didn’t have any posted rules saying we would be kicked out if we held hands on the beach. Today many people probably wouldn’t even notice or care. But there still exists the narrow-minded few that would have been somehow offended, and felt it there obligation to point out we shouldn’t be doing that in public. Those few take away our freedom to express our love for each other.

Freedom isn’t just about the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, nor the Constitutions of each state. Freedom is also a relative term that must be applied to every individual. When we think about our freedoms being taken away, we have an obligation to think about not only how does this affect me, but also how does it affect our children, our neighbors down the street, the people we work with every day, or the person living a thousand miles away we’ve never met. Each of these people have the right to their individual freedom to be happy in life.

Gay marriage has become a political item these days. States and local governments are scrambling to take a side, and pass laws to support the side they have taken. The Federal government has its head in the sand, hoping they won’t have to make a decision if they wait long enough to allow all 50 states to address the debate locally. The first question you need to ask yourself is why is this even on the political agenda? When did marriage, heterosexual or homosexual, become an item that needed to be debated by lawmakers? Aren’t there more important issues that our governments need to be addressing?

As you celebrate this 4th of July, think about the freedoms you enjoy in this country. Give thanks to the many men and women who have served in the armed forces to protect our freedoms as citizens of the United States. Give thanks to the men and women who pioneered change in this country giving blacks equal rights and women the right to vote. Give thanks that you are free to live where you choose, work where you choose, and worship as you choose, and hopefully love as you choose. But most importantly gives thanks for the freedoms that are relative to your own life.

The challenge moving forward is to remember the 4th of July every day. Remember these freedoms when your friend makes a judgmental statement about another individual; remember these freedoms when a pastor tries to rally support from a congregation; remember these freedoms when your local government tries to enact laws that would violate the freedoms of just one individual; and definitely remember these freedoms on election day. Know who you are voting for, and decide if they will cast their votes for the politically popular, or if they will vote to support the freedoms of every individual they represent.

I hope you and yours have a wonderful 4th of July!

My mother passed away on June 4, 2009.  She had been unhappy with life, and deeply depressed since my father died 7 years earlier.  After a two week battle with pneumonia, she stopped fighting, and passed on to the next life.  I was sad that she left my life, but at the same time happy for her because she was going to be with my dad, exactly where she wanted to be, and she was finally at peace.

This brings up the universal question about life:  death.  What happens when we die, and where do we go?  I don’t believe anyone can know for sure.  My mother was christian, and believed she was going to heaven to be with my father.  Soon after she passed, her sister put a status on facebook that my mom “has seen the face of Jesus.”  I wonder, did she?  How can we know that?

Christians believe that life ends, and heaven or hell begins.  I’m sure that’s comforting for many, but I have to ask, is that all there is?  Do we go through this life, accomplishing much or little, and then just spend an eternity somewhere else?  Sounds like a waste of a life to me.  If there was a god that was determining our eternity, and he really wanted it to be a beautiful eternity, wouldn’t he just put us there to begin with?  Why go through all the mundane experiences of a life on earth, if they have no influence on the days following our death.

Some, like most buddhists and pagans, believe in reincarnation.  That’s an interesting alternative, but exactly how does it work?  Do we keep the same soul, and just come back in another body, or do we come back as new souls, but the same self, or do we come back as cute little rabbits or puppies?  And who makes that decision.  And if we do come back, how many times does it happen?  I’ve heard it said that we keep coming back until we get “IT” right.  Well again, who makes the decision that we finally got it right?  And finally, when do we come back?  Does the whole reincarnation process take 12 days, 32 days, 14 years?  I’m OK with the thought of reincarnation, but I want to know how many times I have to come back.  I get bored easily, and don’t want to go through the whole cycle too many times.

Let’s not forget about ghosts….where do they fit into the picture?  Is my mother just wandering around in my house?  Somedays I would say yes, especially when the cable box gets turned off, like she so often would do.  If we become ghosts and remain here in the physical earth, how long do we stay here?  I believe in ghosts, but that belief does contradict my belief in reincarnation.

And finally, could the after life be what we believed it would be, or it is something totally different that none of us would ever expect?  And my least favorite, do we just die and that’s it.  So mother, I wonder, where are you?  Did you meet Jesus and reconnect with your one true love in life, are you preparing to come back for another round or maybe you are already a newborn across town, or are you walking around my house turning off the cable box?