The quest for time, financial and spiritual freedom
I was introduced to this book via a counsellor that works with Mrs. Freedom after her spiritual advisor recommended it to her. It has proven to be extremely thought provoking and challenging for me.
Written by David Deida the full title is – The Way of the Superior Man: A Spiritual Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Women, Work, and Sexual Desire. Sounds like an awfully strong claim to master these complex and varied topics. The author has a secret that ties it all
Ishmael is a gorilla that understands more about humans than humans do and acts as an unorthodox teacher and spiritual guidance counsellor for people by communicating with them telepathically. As surprising as it may sound this is not a joke and is the makings of genius storytelling by author Dan Quinn. If you have ever looked at our ‘developed’ society beyond the glossy facade and noticed that things just don’t seem right or that success as defined by this society doesn’t actually seem as rosy as it’s portrayed to be, these books are for you.
At their core these works of fiction are about freedom; freedom from the modern slavery of our institutions and societal constructs. Freedom from the human penchant to chart a path toward global and self destruction that began when we started putting food behind lock and key and has accelerated for centuries to where we find ourselves now, near the end of a age of cheap and plentiful oil. Ishmael urges one to re-evaluate everything you think you already know about people and this planet. It will turn your world upside down. It will sting and it will resonate.
When Mrs Freedom wanted strawberry towers in our backyard garden to explore a bit of vertical gardening I of course searched the interwebs for what others have done in this regard as we all know there’s no original thoughts or actions left to be had. See what everyone else does, follow a simple online tutorial, and we’d be up and running in no time. What I found is it’s nearly impossible to find garden strawberry tower options that don’t involve PVC in the discussion. It’s the de facto material of choice. So is it safe for use in your garden?
It’s been more than a year since I’ve created a post for this blog. The reasons for this are varied and complicated. I will likely struggle to find coherence in them. Maybe they don’t matter – I’m writing now. More importantly I’ve decided to add a third key word to my quest and to the tag line of this site – “The quest for time, financial, and spiritual freedom.”
I’ve been exploring the edges of my spirituality and this is something new. In fact that word was not part of my repertoire until somewhat
Freedom is not expected overnight so it will need to happen in stages. In no particular order here are the intended stages to be undertaken:
Our small family currently lives in the Metro Vancouver area in Canada. I’ve lived here since 1976 when I was only 6 years old. I loved growing up here. The whole region was just over 1 million people at the time so for me it was never a small town but it felt safe and easy to get around. The access to outdoor adventures in the North Shore mountains and beyond was unparalleled and the winter climate is much more mild than the vast majority of the rest of Canada. It does come by the nickname ‘Rain City’ and the ‘Wet Coast’ quite honestly though.
Today Vancouver is 2.5 million strong and the vibe has changed. For Mrs. Freedom and I it has become too busy, too big, and too difficult to get around. It doesn’t feel as safe as it once did. We no longer visit the mountains as before as the trade off of battling traffic to get there makes it less attractive and there’s often little solitude to be found in the North Shore forests. To add to this, the cost of living has gone through the roof in large part due to the explosion of real estate prices. In short, I once thought I would never live anywhere else and now I find myself longing to live almost anywhere smaller, slower, and quieter. Mrs. Freedom is on the same page – in fact, she’s even more eager than I.
There are so many topics I want to cover and so much in my head that at this point it’s hard for me to stay on a clear path with one concise topic per blog post. That definitely bit me in my previous (first) post. I want to add some other thoughts here.
My quest is to break the shackles of my current life and find the deep happiness and contentedness that currently often eludes me. Freedom from debt slavery, freedom from the consequences of some of my previous decisions, freedom from anxiety as much as is reasonably possible, and yes, financial freedom as I choose to define it.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary:
freedom
1. The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants
1.1 Absence of subjection to foreign domination or despotic government
1.2 The power of self-determination attributed to the will; the quality of being independent of fate or necessity
2. The state of not being imprisoned or enslaved
2.1 The state of being unrestricted and able to move easily
This is all fine and good however the concept of freedom and some of the above definitions highly contextual are open to the interpretation of the reader. In effect, one person’s freedom is another person’s imprisonment.