“Lessons of Freedom”

By Vince DiPasquale

When People lack a sense of awe, there will be disaster. When People do not fear worldly power, a greater power will arrive.

Do not limit the view of yourself. Do not despise the conditions of your birth. Do not resist the natural course of your life. In this way you will never weary of this world.

Therefore, the sage knows himself but makes no show of himself, loves himself but does not exalt himself. He prefers what is within to what is without.

The month of July teaches us the lessons of freedom. To be truly free we need to spend time learning to live in the spirit of awe and acceptance. In these two simple words we learn the special secret of the life. We have been given the gift of life from our Creator. When we stop and look at God’s creation we have to be in awe. Each day let’s learn not to take life for granted. Each of us has a purpose in this world. Each of God’s creatures are both teachers and pupils to us, if we can learn to face life’s journey with the gift of acceptance.

We are told not to limit the view of ourselves, remembering how special we are. Each one of us is a combination of talents, feeling and thoughts. Our spirit and energy gives us the spark to look at life in a special way. Let’s use the words of the Tao to examine our spiritual journey through this world.

How you view yourself doesn’t limit what you can accomplish. The greatest gift we can give ourselves is to learn to embrace our history. Instead of trying to change our history, let’s learn to embrace it, accept it, and let it become our teacher. Our story and our history is the greatest book that is in the process of being written. Each day we write a new chapter. We are told in the Tao not to despise our history because it is the natural course of life. If we are to accept life on its terms it will pay us back a hundredfold. We are taught by the process that we will experience the real meaning of freedom. To be truly free we must embrace life at it’s fullest. To be fully free is to become responsible for our journey and not become weary of life. To be fully alive is to look at the world through the eyes of nature. The world we live in is a great adventure. It’s God’s gift to us and must be treated with respect. If we respect ourselves, if we honor our journey, we will be able to help others honor themselves.

The Tao teaches us that if we take the time to do our work the energy of our journey will reach out to others. The 12th step of our program teaches us that if we have the courage to work on ourselves, to experience a spiritual awakening, then we will be able to carry the message of life to others by example. Remember, if we live in the spirit of life, try to look at all things through positive eyes and continue to be open to growth, we will be able to look at all things in the spirit of gratitude.

If we can face life with its struggles and joys and never lose the spirit of awe, life becomes an adventure. Let’s try to accept it on life’s terms. Try to look at all our experiences with a positive attitude and life will show us the way. We are on God’s journey and our goal is to learn the lessons of life and one day hear our Creator say, “Job well done. Welcome home.”