It Took Me 10 Years to Learn This Lesson About Freedom

I’ll be the first to admit, when I decided to live overseas in 2010, I was on a search for freedom.  I thought freedom was the key to having joy in your life.  However, my reasoning constantly left me coming up short on joy.  Yet, since returning almost ten years later, I’ve realised what I felt was independence.  I discovered true freedom can be found in loving and serving those closest to you. 

Years ago, I was at a dinner with a business executive.  We were weaving in and out of conversations about his travels and family.  At some point, I said something that showed my assumption that his children were also world travelers.  His response was, “Not yet, they are working on their first concentric circle. I want them to love their own neighbourhood, state, and country first, and then we will move beyond.” 

At first, I thought this a bit strange.  Here is someone with the means of showing his children the world, yet it’s not encouraged or even being practiced.  Surely the children deserve to experience more than just a small European country.  

What if what he said was true? What if his children did, in fact, learn to truly love and serve the people and place where they call home? How will that change the way they experience the rest of the world? 

I’m in a time in my life where I am in the beginning stages of loving and serving my elderly parents as they enter these rewarding final years.  They are the most youthful 80-year-olds I know, but I know that will shift as time progresses.  

I’ve heard so many stories of women “giving up” their most fruitful years to be the caretaker.  It’s as if the assumption is that your life is put on pause while you take care of those who once cared for you. Instead, I’ve already experienced this as one of the most fertile seasons of my life.  

I was reading a new Time Magazine article titled “The New Science of Happiness,” which lays out the research from 20 years of studies on positive psychology.  The article looks at three areas that lead to happiness: pleasure, engagement, and meaning.  In my travels, pleasure was always a priority, and meaning was constantly what I was yearning for. 

In my current season, engagement and meaning are deeply embedded without any searching. I’m lucky to have two incredible parents, so they also make the experience pleasurable. 

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Johanna is a mother, adventurer, published author, and founder of Positive Doing – a life-coaching practice focused on women / mothers looking for more flexibility and fulfillment.  Download her new ebook here.