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A Summer for Freedom

My Seasonal Essence making process has a rhythm of its own. I cannot force it to my will! I make the essence three to four weeks before the change of seasons, then wait for the words to come.

This essence seemed to take an extraordinarily frustrating amount of time to come to me. I knew the essence had something to do with being free and focusing on service to Life, but it was an incoherent knowing.

Last week, I heard the key that opened the door to summer. It came in the form of a crossword puzzle clue: "Liberty means responsibility. That's why most men dread it. - Shaw" This quote came from Shaw's play, "Man and Superman." I spent that day watching this long play on YouTube (highly recommended), and doing a deep dive into the words "freedom" and "liberty." We use those words interchangeably, but the crucial difference is that liberty involves not being restricted by societal norms, whereas freedom is an internal condition—a free mind. Equally interesting, the word freedom comes from the Proto Indo-European word "priy-a" meaning "dear, beloved."

And this is what this summer essence is all about—making a decision to free ourselves from the shackles of those beliefs we have held for so long whose effect has been to keep us separate from the family of Life and to abandon ourselves to the care of Life (not our jobs, our status, our obligations, or even our families). This is radical belonging, and the essence encourages us to empty ourselves of past preconceptions about how life works or even what is happening in the world right now.

All around me, I see people who are certain about what is happening in our world and why. I see a greater number of people who have been knocked off their center by the eruption of personal revelations. The times when things seem impossible to understand, let alone do something constructive about, are times when the invitation to re-orient ourselves to a fuller way of knowing is strong. These are times when Big Life opens her doors to us.

Here is an excerpt of an essence I made a while ago for someone who was troubled by something she thought many people around her felt fine about while she felt the opposite of fine:

Liberty without freedom is mayhem. If we have the liberty to see the world as we want, yet our minds are still enthralled by old scripts of domination and control, we will belong to the family of what-is-known-and-believed-by-the-mind. That is not freedom. If we feel our "family" is limited to a particular group of people—not others, not nature, not Life all around us, we will miss out on an incredible opportunity to participate in the continuous creation of Life, even in the creative destruction of forms born in mindsets of extraction and control.

Once your mind is oriented to the family of Life, any cause you take on—environmental, political, or social issues, being a teacher, raising young children, making art, caring for your elderly parents—any cause you take on will be guided by an intelligence greater than your own (Life!), and you will feel the importance and cohesiveness of your current mission.

Years ago when Bill Moyer was talking with Joseph Campbell, he said something like, "So man is really searching for meaning, is that what you are saying?" Joe answered something like, "No, not meaning, but to be alive."

This summer essence is all about opening ourselves to the powerful experience of being alive— being a part of Life, informed by Life, and responsive to Life's calling to us. Imagine yourself as a boat with an empty hull and a huge sail. Ask Life to blow you where it will and you will not be disappointed.

Read the Summer Solstice Essence ingredients here.

How to take this essence:

• Take it when you are feeling bewildered by life's problems and solutions
• Take it when you feel afraid of loss
• Take it when you feel lonely and incompetent
• Take it simply to stay in sync with the movement of nature this summer

The essence is $35Cdn. Free shipping in Canada, $10 shipping to the US.

If you have a personal situation that needs some free-thinking, bundle the seasonal essence with a personal essence for an additional $55.

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Hope you have a warm and adventurous summer.

Lots of love,

Therese