Friday Five: Freedom

After spending the past six weeks with my right arm tightly bound to my body with a "shoulder immobilizing" sling due to shoulder surgery, I was able to discard that restrictive device three days ago. Such freedom in movement is to be savored! This brought to mind how we experience freedom in many different ways in our lives.


For today's Friday Five, tell us about your times of release or detachment (freedom!) in such areas as:

1. physical
The most recent physical release I have experienced is the one related above: I saw my orthopedic surgeon on Tuesday and he told me I could stop wearing the arm/shoulder sling! He told me this after he showed me the x-rays taken some minutes before, where he pointed out the white deposits of calcium where the bone was reattaching itself.

It is wonderful to not have that black contraption wrapped around me. The freedom to straighten out my arm is delightful. NOT sleeping with my arm bent inwards (the elbow always right next to my body) across my body is so comfortable!

I still cannot move my arm in all directions or to heights I would like. Having physical therapy three times a week plus doing exercises at home give me encouragement about my future mobility.

2. spiritual
Having a group of three friends that meet regularly for lunch on Mondays since 1996 has brought me freedom to express my doubts and wonderings about God in discussions. We were originally all in the same church and same adult Sunday School class, and it was refreshing to find openness and acceptance together when we could not always experience that in the first two places.

I am still fortunate to see these three women almost weekly, with time out for trips and grandchildren being born.

3. emotional
I was clinically depressed for several years in the mid-90s. When I finally could accept that "depression" was only a part of me and not the defining characteristic/weakness of my being, then I grew healthier.

4. vocational
I only realized the freedom I experienced as a teacher in Oregon after moving to Texas and teaching for one year here. In Oregon, we were allowed to individualize and work as teams instead of coordinating with each teacher in a certain grade to teach exactly the same thing (as in TX). We had state goals or guidelines for each subject in each grade to guide us, but there was more freedom in choosing to accomplish these. (This was back in the late '70's, so these judgments may not apply now.)

5. relationships
Thomas Merton's saying that the closer you come to God, the closer you come to your true self shows forth in my relationships with others. Earlier in my life, I was very much a people-pleaser and somehow I've grown more into my own self as I've aged. I know God has provided people, books, and such groups as Al-Anon and church to bring more awareness into action in me.