As I was out running one morning this week, I couldn’t help but consider all that is free in life. For me, there is an exhilarating freedom in being able to run. Just like the rest of life, on some days the runs are more of a struggle than others but I don’t stop going just in case it’s a day when I’ll find it hard. I take the good with the bad because overall running gives me an immense sense of freedom. This has been my experience since I was a small child.
Whilst out on this particular run, I felt privileged to notice the beauty of my surroundings; from the sun shimmering off the farmers fields, to the vast expanse of open space stretching out as far as I could see, to the silhouette of the squirrel scampering across the top of a fence just as I passed, to the sound of the birds making music in the trees, the cat crouched in the undergrowth with its prey in its jaw, to the dog walker who also had a parrot on his shoulder. That was a definite double taker of a moment!
And, best of all, all of this was free!
Then as I returned from my run, I happened to pass a house which had a large box of bagged up rolls on the garden wall along with a sign inviting people to help themselves as these were free! Another double taker moment as I am like most people in that I am conditioned by the cynicism of society to think ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’! And yet there was mine! I took a bag and no one chased me down the road to demand payment!
Next up I called in to the newsagent where there was a pile of local newspapers with a sign on top which read, ‘help yourself, free’!
It was as if this theme of that which is free was being reinforced throughout my day!
On this particular day that I ran, I was also enjoying being free from the responsibilities of my work. Don’t get me wrong, I love my work – I actively chose to invest the decade required to do what I do. But, I equally love to be free from it and believe that my capacity to enjoy these work free days enriches me to continue giving in enlivening ways to the work.
The additional free time that my recent reduced work load has gifted me with also provides more time, head and heart space to indulge in other passions such as reading the work of other writers.
My chosen reading for this week included:
The power of You, by Henry Fraser
Say Yes to Life by Victor Frankl
For anyone who likes to contemplate the deeper things of life I would recommend Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl. What a total legend.
What these men of different times have in common is that whilst both had experienced their own personal hell on earth; one at the hands of the Nazi’s of Auschwitz and the other following a paralysing accident whilst on the brink of entering adulthood, both of these inspiring individuals had also discovered the gift of not only overcoming such personal trauma’s but going on to experience the slices of Heaven that life continues to offer in spite of it all.
And I LOVE all that kind of jazz.
Life delivers personalised and collective crap parcels to us all but it doesn’t have to stop us entering in to the joy beyond.
You could say that both these men have cultivated the capacity to enjoy that which continues to be free such as the way in which we choose to see, experience and respond to our personal and or collective crisis and traumas.
As lockdown is the collective crisis of our time, the invitation remains for us all to work towards a place where we continue to encounter the slices of Heaven which emerge even within and from this.
It is of course a process and one where we cannot simply bypass the pain of the very real losses experienced and ongoing.
Being able to encounter the beauty amidst the sorrow is not about denying but grieving the losses sufficiently to see beyond them to that free gift that remains available to us all – the ability to connect with each other.
In my personal and professional experience and observation, it is the ability to connect with other humans and in their absence God Himself that determines how well we are able to endure, grow beyond and move on to establish lives we want to live despite the traumas we encounter.
Whilst it is not possible to enjoy the healing power of the touch of other humans right now, if my work has taught me anything it is that touch goes way beyond the realms of the hands.
What I mean is that whilst we cannot hold the hand or touch the shoulder let alone embrace those that we wish to, we are still free to touch one another’s hearts in a hands free way.
We just need to be a little more creative.
That is not to belittle the loss of touch though.
Research shows that some baby’s in orphanages have been known to die in the absence of human touch.
And yet, at this time we are still free to touch one another through holding in mind and uplifting and encouraging through the power of words, smiles, eyes and actions even if aided by technology.
It is not the same.
But there is still power within it.
Let us not lose sight of the beauty within the sorrow, the hope within the horror, the healing within the holding of one another in mind and hearts and the glimpses of Heaven within the Hell.
For just like the one who tends to our hurts with a supernatural touch, we are still free to touch the mind, hearts and lives of each other in ways that allow us to continue to endure that which is hard without losing sight of that which is good.
No matter how long Lockdown continues or what life will look like beyond it, the power to love and connect to each other and God remain free to us all.