I am trapped within my life.

I am free within my life.

One life: two perspectives.

When I reflect upon my life, I am doing so from within my life.  If I change the nature of my pondering, I can see it as a collection of facts and needs- a thing of practicality and production, or I am able to see something mysterious and paradoxical.  These perspectives are what lead me to think I am trapped or free.

Many of our perspectives are the product of modernity, resulting in functional views of life.  Some people have been able to use modernity to explore, but many more have lost touch with the wonder of life.

A few days ago I was taken out on a Florida river for just ninety minutes in a canoe.  In search of alligators, I was lost in the wonder of black water, the whoosh of wind followed by the silences, the natural flora, turtles and fishing birds and lilies everywhere (no alligators, alas): ‘When you go into nature, you bring your clay body back to its native realm. … You recover your deeper rhythm.*

All is presence, is wonder.

I am told the ancient Human ear is most attuned to the song of birds – where birds are found we also would find the things we require to live.  I found myself reflecting on what it is I am most attuned to, what I wonder at, the mystery I pursue.

We find our freedom when we identify and pursue our wonder, and after modernity and postmodernity we are entering into a new Human flourishing.

‘The unknown is our closest companion; it walks beside us every step of the journey.’*

‘We wilfully create the illusion that we have no choice because it’s frightening to be free.  But the deeper we look, the more we realise just how much choice we actually have.’**

(*From John O’Donohue’s Eternal Echoes.)
(**From Seth Godin’s It’s Your Turn.)