Elisabeth Fayt, Author of Paving It Forward

Most of you have heard of Al Capone, the famous gangster who headed up the largest organized crime operation in Chicago in the early to early 1900’s. I recently heard more about his life, learning that he was sentenced to Alcatraz prison in 1934. I was shocked to see a picture of his jail cell. Not what you would expect, it was decorated like the most lovely living room quarters of a nicely appointed hotel. Shocking!

But what was even more shocking, in a good way, was the profound lesson I learned through it, from an SRF lecture I attended on how Al Capone’s prison cell relates to our own lives. Here is the message:

We are all in a self-created prison, held captive by our thoughts, habits and tendencies. And we are all united in the fact that we all want the same thing: freedom. But instead, we decorate our prison. We decorate it with all of our desires: a large screen TV, a home renovation, a better job, more money, the perfect outfit, or the latest and greatest anything that grabs our attention. These become the goal of our lives.

It’s okay to own things, but not to be owned by them, which means, not making them the focal point of our desires. I’ve heard the quote by Peace Advocate, John Lennon, who said: “Life happens when you’re making other plans”. Isn’t it so? We miss the beauty of life, when we’re fussing about this and that. Lennon also said, back in the 60’s, “If everyone demanded peace, instead of another television set, there would be peace.”

So what is freedom for you? For me, it’s to be at PEACE: content in all that I have and am. And that doesn’t come by chasing after the latest thrill. It comes by creating it in my own life.

As the holiday season approaches, I urge each of you to take the focus off the externals, and put it on the things that mean freedom to you. Be it peace or love, safety, security, happiness or whatever it means.

And remember, you are as free as you think and choose to be. No one is holding you captive, but yourself.