The myriad friends, family, community and even strangers who have asked me about real Freedom, have rarely liked the discussion that ensued...
I've usually tried to speak to my own Freedom, Sovereignty, free time, freedom of expression, absence of contractual obligations, etc, etc, through the metaphor of Infinite Choice.
Many, many folks are convinced in any one moment or situation, that there are maximum two, opposing choices - but more often, just the one. One glaringly obvious choice, or more precisely, just the single 'necessity' or - again - obligation. "I have to..." is invariably presented as the set-in-stone reasoning and justification, no matter the ethics or sense in the choice.
A very wonderful process of thinking, which can be used to dismantle rigidity in thinking around our Free Will, is the 21 Reasons exercise: whenever a particularly confronting challenge appears, rather than rush into fighting fires, claiming victimhood, or compounding the issue, I stop, breathe, and take time out to list 21 Reasons why this is a super positive situation.
What seems like an arduous or impossible task, is transformative; when first using it, the whole thing can feel contrived. But it works: nearing the end of the list, even where it feels forced, something eases and flows. The mind is sufficiently massaged open to recognising that all is not as it appears on the surface/ to the ego, and most assuredly it is far from hopeless!
Most commonly, using this exercise, I realise quite efficiently, methodically, that a) there is no rush to act, b) I can learn something (powerful) from the challenge, and c) it is not as clear-cut negative as my reactionary first impression made of the thing. The practise gives me not just insight into my own (atrophied!) psyche and where it can heal or grow, but it creates living momentum towards more harmonious further inquiry - towards a far wider series of options, actions, resources, freedoms.
The task itself is not a unique key to unlocking Free Will, but it does help illustrate how a change of thinking can be made, if one is open to it.
And the openness perhaps can be coaxed from the mind of someone trapped in the self-created prison of single-choice-ness, if we keep planting seeds, ideas, models, wee tricks to prove that we are already Free... eventually something will germinate.
The lifelong work of Being The Change (that we want to see in the world), for me, holds a stranger and a more complex rapport with conventional folks as time goes by. I often discuss with 
The cost is everything, though: exponential loss of everything, because Freedom is central to All Good Things, and without it we begin a methodical path to a brittle, dry existence. Freedom is the juice that keeps every aspect of our life and our wellbeing in movement, in Flow. We are supposed to be (we are made to be) dynamic, elemental, spontaneous, diverse and multi-dimensional.
We cannot be that, if we take the reductive 'choice' laid down before us. Taking the 'given option/s' is inherently less right to begin with, because we didn't cultivate or reason or feel magnetised to it or get additional signs from the Universe towards it. If a choice is instead gravitated towards, earned through discernment, following rumination and research, sweating and stretching of muscles - we feel connected with it, a certain kind of natural ownership develops. Our choice satisfies all the loose ends, and it opens The Way ahead, rather than closing it.
It is not so easy to see all this from within the system: inside conventional suburban life, it might feel like we are very blessed to attend a job, be married to a partner, eat food, dress up in clothing that we don't hate, but will we ever know what it is to be immersed in the cocreative alignment of oir actual Life Purpose? And can we ever comprehend what we are withholding from the collective and the cosmos - from God?
I know that my life force, vitality and genius, if it were harnessed to a typical work schedule and consumer pattern, would wilt and die. I know because I tried it. I also observed (and continue to observe) all kinds of friends, family and community members, shackled and straining, who are as content as (they believe they) can be: they cannot know anything different, their bubble is sterile and intact.
However.
'Alternative' folks like ourselves, homesteaders, Hivers, people living on the land, those open to real conversation, to further questioning the questions even; we are a wholesome missing link in their chains, and I sense that this is becoming more evident, every single day.
I love the feeling of being able to unravel perverse logic like a woolly jumper with a loose thread, to be able to stand very clearly occupying truth and movement and infinite choice, to be play-full in our relationship with Nature and with the Divine, to be the black sheep and the odd one out and even the heretic. All are roles that we can hold lightly, as we move daisy and dandelion plants to our terrace (above the leaking cantina ceiling), shift leaf mold and soil from the wild woods track edges, into our new, naturalised cement deck. It only took us 8 months or so to glean an affordable, straightforward solution, from the infinite choice of reactions we had before us. 😋🤗🥳
We may not be standing on a stage in a city pavillion, singing protest songs or making passionate speeches... but how differently, how well, and how improvingly we are living, how Free we are - well, good news travels fast. It's only easy at first to dismiss the expat crazies, but when we flourish and inspire and are visibly living a completely alternative paradigm... The effects can very well ripple out ....forever.
