Freedom.
“I have realized that I am a helper, but that what I want to help with is freedom. No matter what I do, my rubrics has become, ‘does this activity, time, item, task; help me bring someone to freedom? It could be all sort of freedoms, but freedom is what I hope they find”.
It was funny to hear my friend talk about that concept because it is something I have been thinking about since I got home from Thailand/Burma a couple of weeks ago. I met with a friend last week to hear about her thoughts about life after volunteering abroad for a short stint. She confessed having a bit of a crisis of purpose, as many do after a trip abroad, and after a lot of research and processing, she now knows that this is her purpose. Her new mission statement is to be a person who helps others find their freedom.
Sometimes things in my life ring significant only after these things have presented themselves repeatedly, in different contexts and conversations. That is why this conversation was significant. Just a few days prior I was speaking to a group of people about my recent trip to work with the Karen people of Burma, who are refugees in Thailand, and the thing I found myself saying is that what really struck me about these people was their lack of freedom to go home. They may have found freedom in spirit, purpose, education, but they have no freedom to go home. Home is the one thing that most want to freedom to pursue.
I knew, after I heard my friend say the word freedom that I too wanted to be a “freedom fighter” or a conduit of freedom. In many ways, we are all seeking freedom, different freedoms, but a sense of that, nonetheless. Financial freedom, spiritual freedom, emotional freedom; whichever, let me help you, be a part of the journey to find the elusive and make it less that way. Whether it is with my client’s in inner-city Los Angeles or my Karen friends in the jungles on the Thai/Burma border, it would be a privilege to be a part of the journey to discover the freedom to experience the potential with which each person has been created.
For now that is the beginning of my mission statement, more to come……..