Free Speech

What is free speech?

Free speech is not name calling.
Free speech is not badgering.
Free speech is not belittling what someone else has said or their beliefs.
Free speech does not try to demean others, nor should it's intention be to raise oneself above them.

This type of communication only provides a stalemate, creates argument, fosters distrust, and promotes hatred and animosity.

Free speech is a discussion between two people or a group of people.
Free speech is a sharing of ideas.
Free speech involves listening by both or all sides.
Free speech is dependent on respect and openness, and equality.

Free speech promotes learning, sharing, growth, forward movement, understanding, working together, and accomplishment.

I Found Myself

I found myself hiding under a rock today.
"What are you doing there?", I asked. "I'm hiding", came the reply.
"Why are you hiding?" "I'm upset and scared", was the answer. "There are many reasons. You wouldn't understand. Please go away."
"Why don't you come out and play?"
"Play! Play! Are you kidding. Can't you see I'm trying to hide here. Can't you see this is serious. Play? How could you even suggest it?"
I became sad for a moment, not for myself, but for what I saw. The pain, the resistance, and the fear. Though I respected the request and left.
I played anyway that day in a field of flowers. I ran here and there, hiding every now and then in the tall grass. I laughed, I cried, I sang to the wind. I played unabashedly.
And then by chance when I came across the place I found myself hiding...I saw myself smiling.

A Dream

Little by little we learn to surrender, we learn to let go, we learn to trust.
Like a parent letting go of a child to watch it grow into an adult.
Like a child learning to ride a bike without training wheels.

So to we reach out, still holding on if only to get a taste, reaching out a little farther each time, risking a little more. Letting go little by little, until we find that being there brings us here, and that we were there all along, that it's safe, and that we feel more support and love then we have ever know before. Our beliefs in safety are shattered and we learn to fly. We remember we have always been flying, only afraid to look. Nothing, nobody is holding us back, they never were, we were just lost in a dream.

Philosophy

It only sounds like philosophy until you believe it, then it's your belief.
To him that believes the glass is half empty, the statement "the glass is half full", is just a philosophical thought, to the other it's his reality.
Every belief is the same, just a philosophy, unless you believe it, and then your whole world becomes reflected through it.

Me

You wear the face I see in me.
There's one of joy and hope. I like that one.
There's one of courage and strength. I aspire to that one.
There's one of fear and denial. I sometimes deny that one.

I see you. I see me.
I embrace you. I embrace me.

Impermanence

Nature teaches us that nothing is permanent. What once flourished now recesses. Where once stood a majestic tree, now lies compost for new growth. One day there can be a forest, the next there can be a forest of ash. Nature at times seems to change very slowly, and at times very quickly.

One thing you can be sure of is that it's always changing. That is the very act of living, change, and yet so many of us fear change and the unknown that it brings.

If this can teach us something it is not to hold on too tightly. What goes up must come down. If we allow the flow, trust and learn to let go of expectations; if we stay present, we've got it made.

Nature is Playful

Have you truly ever observed nature. It appears to me to be playing. Spirit, I believe is playfully creative. Everything from the plants and trees swaying in the wind, to the powerful storm blowing across the ocean, to the birds chirping in the trees.
It doesn't seem to know our seriousness. It knows no moderation. It exists, and it does so fully, wonderfully, playfully.