Freedom, Judgment, Will and Integrity

The first thing I should do in the morning is realize I am free to go through the day as I will. I have freedom because I only direct my energy towards those things immediately in my control. If I have to drive to work in the morning and I leave at 8:00 AM, I know the traffic will be heavy and it's going to take between 30 and 45 minutes to get to work. Why struggle with that fact and pretend there is anything I can do to move the traffic along. I can get in the left lane, the center lanes or the right lane, but I can't create a new lane with no cars in it. I have the freedom to take it for what it is and not allow it to alter my mind, my mood or any aspect of the day other than the few extra minutes my commute will take.

Traffic can be used as a metaphor for every seemingly unpleasant thing I have to deal with in my day. I have the freedom to decide how, or if, I will react to that "traffic." There are unpleasant people I will interact with and for some people I will be that unpleasant person. In fact, the majority of the "traffic" will be what happens in my own mind as I choose to allow anger, disappointment, or my sense of entitlement to muddle my perspective. I have the freedom to allow those feelings to drive my day or to cast them aside just as I don't allow the person that cuts in front of me to spin up an angry response. They didn't do that as an assault on my dignity, they are just driving their car. I am free to react how I choose. 

My judgment gives me freedom. I can decide how to judge the things that happen around me. And the primary judgment of most of the things that happen around me should be indifference. I can think the flow of activity around me has something to do with me, that the world is in some way against or even for me, or I can see it has little to do with me. I decide how to judge or, maybe more importantly, how not to judge. It is how we judge things that impacts how we react to the world. We are free when we judge the world as it is rather than how we wish it to be or twist it to make us the victim. When we judge wrongly we can lose our freedom, which is essentially control of our minds and actions.

I have control of my will, how I want to direct my energy. How I direct my will is at the center of the four concepts: Freedom, Judgment, Will and Integrity. My will is what I apply to direct my freedom, judgment, and maintain my integrity. The one thing I must realize as fully my own is my will. And of course that will can be applied to the defeat of injustice. If I want to maintain my integrity, I can't ignore injustice, dishonesty, theft, etc. I have an obligation to myself to not be a part of anything that would compromise my core beliefs as a human being trying to get through life without diminishing another person that is also trying to live a good life.

I am free so long as I make the choice to see the world as it truly is. Circumstances will arise that will hinder me, that will require a change of course, but even these things are but a test of my will. There is a daily effort to see things as they truly are and to exist within reality. The world is a crazy place full of confused beings misapplying their will, distorting their judgement, abandoning their integrity all with the goal of being free. But it is impossible to be free when we do not have control of those basics. 

My goal in life is be in control of that which is mine, that which I can truly control--my mind while I still have it. Be well.