Freedom and movement

Anna has a collection of interesting and thematic party games that students visiting our home enjoyed playing. This one requires two to use their left hands to tie a thread. In a group the competition is to make the longest chain. Every time I watch this activity, I observe an innovative way the students approach this game.

In this group one pair mastered the art of one person doing one movement to tie a knot. It became so consistent that they exceeded the speed of all the others. 

Later I asked them how they managed to do this. The answer caught my attention. They moved the fingers without pressing the fingers down to tie the knot. While the others made the loop for the knot by pressing on each other's finger tip, this pair managed to form the loop away form the finger tip which gave them easy movement and reduced the time to tie the knot. Both of them were used to knitting and this gave them an advantage.

Movement needs freedom. Every time a person with Parkinson's disease wants to move, he or she is restricted. There is much resistance to the movement due to hypertonia of the muscles.

Each of has us an inner state which determines our freedom to relate, trust, engage and interact. This  inner freedom is conditioned by our memories, experiences, and attitudes. If the past has conditioned us to be fearful, cautious, reticent or cynical, then it is this we would communicate in the exterior. 

Every time a difficult experience befalls us, it can press on a previous inner wound or a raw scar, which makes us feel frozen inside. What we communicates outward subsequently is negative emotions or approach. 

True freedom is when we invite healing within ourselves. Healing comes through forgiveness, detachment and surrender. Forgiveness is a an act of love, where we offer worth to others even when they may not deserve. Detachment is a choice to let go, so that the past gets integrated into the ocean of of our experiences like the way pieces of a puzzles come together to create a mosaic. Surrender is an openness to welcome circumstances through the optic of faith in order to trust an experience or event that looks apparently trying, to bring something good ultimately. 

A child who was running to catch a butterfly fell down and got bruised; he did not pause for a moment to attend to his wound, but continued chasing the butterfly. When I asked him at the end of it, when he had not still caught the butterfly, he told me, ' the butterfly would not wait for me'.

Opportunities would not wait for us. So let us live and move in freedom to 'seize the opportune time' for it can be full of gains and benefits. That is why, Jesus of Nazareth said, 'If the Son can make you free, you shall be free indeed'. This freedom  in its fullness is a gift from God. 

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)