Freedom to Be: Follow Your Bliss Even If You Don’t Know Where Or What It Is

Two days ago I shared a dream I had had the night before (or early morning of), and it had Morgan Freeman as a central character (see “Unburdened: Tapping Into Inner Child Enthusiasm”).

It occurred to me while I was writing the post that “Free Man” was a key message in the dream. He is and represented a “free man” in the dream, who can fight injustice and oppression.

And yes, in a dream, you are often represented in the other characters. I tend to be an observer of my dreams, as if I am there and present, looking upon the scene through my eyes. Thus, I think I am even more inclined to project parts of myself into dream characters.

I don’t know much about Morgan Freeman, but I do know that my tribe, the Cherokee Nation, were accompanied by their Black slaves and servants When they pushed into concentration camps and then forced to march from the Southeast to Indian Territory.

The tribe decided to make these individuals and their descendants members of the tribe. They are referred to as the Freemen. So, perhaps there is another layer of meaning to the dream. I don’t know.

It is a shame that some of my ancestors held people as slaves, but I am proud that the tribe embraced the freed slaves and incorporated them into the tribe. At least it seems like a step towards healing a great injustice.

But back to the topic.

Do you, do I, have the freedom to be?

The freedom to be and do what we want and feel is important?

This past weekend, Lee and I were discussing his dream of sailing. I asked him if he still wanted to sail around the world at some point.

You see, I have been thinking about “big dreams” a lot this past week and a half.

Lee sent me a digital copy of an autobiography called Brave or Stupid, and I have been listening to it since then, a little bit here and there.

It is about two Swedish men who, after taking a 6–8 week bicycle trip across parts of Denmark, England, and France, decide they may want to take on sailing around the world. Neither of them had ever sailed before or boated much at all.

But they formed a pact and decided to start training for and depart on an around-the-world sailing adventure in five years.

I am amazed at the story. I keep asking myself, why are they doing it? Why was that the thing they chose as their “big dream” versus something else? I am not sure of that, as I am only about halfway done, but maybe it will be revealed later.

What I have noticed is that the sailing parts of the journey are scary, unpleasant, and could result in catastrophe.

As they sailed across the Atlantic as a part of a flotilla, one of the boats they started off with lost a crew member to the sea. Eventually, his body was recovered. It was the brother of the other sailor on the boat. A horrible outcome.

And another couple, also from Sweden, lost most of their worldly possessions when their boat sank to the bottom of the ocean. They had sold everything to buy their boat and pursue this dream of sailing around the world. Jeez. I guess or hope they had insurance?

Loss of life, loss of possessions, loss of dreams, and I have been sitting here contemplating my loss of mojo.

It puts it in perspective.

The ports-of-call adventures these two guys get to experience do sound like a lot of fun, so maybe that is the point.

You’ve got to take the good with the bad in life and any adventure.

And maybe they didn’t know quite what they were doing either? They just “had” to do it.

That is following your bliss, personified.

That’s my next chapter of life, too.

I have decided that I want to focus on integrating my hermit nature with the foolish Took side of my Bilbo Baggins personal myth.

As I wrote in yesterday’s article, I would reveal my “central” identity of the 7 that I wrote about in the “7 Is A Magic Number” article earlier this week.

I will focus on the Student identity.

If you had guessed the Adventurer identity, I can see why.

That is what I thought was the answer as I was wrestling with these ideas the past ten days or so.

What I figured out is that approaching life as a pure adventure would be fine for a while, and in fact, I think that is what I have sort of been doing on and off since reaching FIRE.

The problem with this identity is that if it is not focused, it becomes a quest to check things off your bucket list. Also a fine thing to do.

But when I step back and look at the times in my life when I have felt the most fulfilled, happy, and free, it was when I was pursuing something meaningful.

I am happier when that meaningful quest is longer rather than shorter, too.

For example, I loved the week-long conference of IASD in June. I also loved the Northwest Tarot Symposium weekend format. But if given the choice, I would have preferred the week or longer.

Thus, I am now seeking the next “Student” adventure I can embark upon this year. I have some ideas, but I am not ready to discuss or commit to any of them yet.

That doesn’t mean the other 6 identities go away.

They are going to go along with the Student, but the Student identity will be at the helm for the next 2 to perhaps 5 years. We will see.

The biggest interplay will be between the Student identity, supported by the Local Troubadour identity, and the Snowbird identity.

And I am leaving “vocational” concerns behind for now.

Maybe someday I will tackle this again, again, we will see.

but I have spent too long with the Cart (vocational questions) in front of the Horse (developing the Freedom to Live my truth).

More then Financial, More than Time, I am after “real” Psychological Freedom.

I will have more to say about all of this in future articles.