If you've had the chance to attend any of our live screenings, you know that it is not only a chance to view our work but also a chance to engage in deep, community dialogue. It is also a chance to engage in a reflective process with yourself. I ask all audience members to fill out (anonymously) a sheet of paper with four questions on it. Those questions are:
--What does the phrase "Belonging in the USA" evoke for you?
--What is freedom?
--What brought you to this room?
--What are you struggling with the most at this moment in your life?
I thought I'd share my answers to these questions with you today.
To me, the phrase "Belonging in the USA" is somewhat of a private joke with myself. I find it ironic that in a nation filled with people from every corner and country in the world, we would even have to think about what it means to belong here. Don't we all belong? Isn't the very fact that we were born to this planet mean that we belong here? That, anyway, is how I choose to see it. If you exist, you belong. Period.
Freedom to me is a state of being. It is an inner capacity to decipher and discern. It is a willingness to grow. It is the ability to contribute to the greater good. I feel the most free when I am sharing my gifts with the world, when I'm traveling, when I'm engaged in deep conversation with someone, and when I'm in nature.
I show up in rooms to share my work with the larger community because I am called to engage people to tap into what we share as one world, one humanity. I host screenings so that other people may experience the profound shift in energy that is possible when we let go of our own story, even if for a second, and let ourselves be engaged by, and attuned to, the stories of our fellow humans.
At this moment I am struggling the most with judgments. It is hard for me not to think that the the way I feel and think about things is the best way. It is all to easy for me to look at someone else's choices and lives and see how they could do it better if only they would adopt my way of being or doing. This struggle, I know, comes right from my ego, my mind, or as one of my favorite teachers calls it, the barking dogs in my bad neighborhood.
So I listen, allow, accept, and love myself through it. Knowing that I have so much to learn. Knowing that one of the best ways I learn is through listening to others and being a witness to another's experience of life.
I hope you will be able to be one of those people that I get to learn from at an upcoming screening near you. Check out our events page to see where we'll be screening next. Join our mailing list to never miss an update. Follow us on social media. And last but not least, reach out to us if you are interested in co-hosting a screening in your area or community.