Enjoy Your Free Mind Today

We’ve all heard that “freedom is a state of mind”. I suppose there’s some truth to that.

Most of us have the clear mental capacity to choose what thoughts we let into our heads. And we’re pretty good at filtering out the good shit from the bad shit. But on THOSE days, yeah, you know the ones; we give in and tack up the sign in the window: Come In, We’re Open!

The door explodes, letting in the masses like Wal-Mart on Black Friday — peace lovers, harmony seekers, and chicken soup bringers. Not far behind, every brand of CRAZY known to man overfills your cart.

A free mind is smart to employ a noble gatekeeper. Depending on your life’s situation, you might have a burly Bouncer who lets in the pretty girls and tosses the drunks, or, if it’s one of THOSE days your Bouncer just might be the drunk who lets everybody in.

As kids the gatekeeper is loosey-goosey, one of us, so we believe. Some truly are well-meaning good friends. Others are false allies or ally opponents. In the time between elementary school through college our minds haven’t even interviewed a gatekeeper. If there’s the hint of a filter, it’s without set rules, a suggestion perhaps, more like a book wedged in the door. Everyone and anyone hops on the merry-go-round frat party. Our potential freedom is upstaged by an immature scared mind. We fear being excluded by the “popular” kids. (P.S. For some this doesn’t go away in adulthood).

By the time we find our first gray hairs most of us have installed an intrusion alarm to protect the freedom of my minds. It starts out as a nice picket fence, guarded by a dog. Then we get two dogs. Or one very big dog. Later, we build walls, or cold stone defensive fortresses. Ain’t nobody getting in here.

The delicate dance is to keep one’s mind free by choosing what thoughts we let in while not arming the fort tower with cannons. You see that, right?

To be a free citizen is a birth right in the United States; not so much in other places around the globe. In this country we are free to choose what we read and write. We choose our profession or career. We move freely from an apartment in the city to a home in the suburbs, if we choose. We are free to change our minds and try something new at any time. Sadly, this is the cause of many bad hair days.

As an American female I am free to vote or start a business; express my thoughts, ambitions, goals and desires in written word, in song, in prayer, with paint or crayons. I am free to dream, free to HAVE dreams. I am free to worship as I please, whether to the vast entity I call “God” or the blooming pink azaleas lining the driveway which I’m certain my God had his/her hand in creating.

We are not only free to choose who we let in to our life, but what thoughts we choose to let in our mind or elect to kick out. Ideas and ideals we’re cool with, we invite over the drawbridge. C’mon in, we say, pull up a chair and sit a while.

Freedom of the mind is freedom of choice. I choose this, not that. Love, kindness, generosity — supportive virtues that nurture our minds and trickle into our souls are always welcome. To choose the best thoughts and let them linger for a lifetime is true freedom. The rest are the perks of being born here.

Lock the gate if you must to keep out the riff-raff, but leave a light on.

BE F-G AWESOME TODAY!

Graphic: Stephanie DelTorchio

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