I Just Want to be Free - I Just Want to be Me!

It was a sunny Saturday in April 2003 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The Carolina-blue sky seemed to kiss the wavy waters as the gentle wind embraced the beach. After enjoying the beach for a while with my 16-year old daughter and husband, one by one, they ventured off to find a spot on the beach away from the water.

I stood close to the water barely wetting my feet and totally mesmerized by God's awesome creation. The voices of the beach-goers gradually faded as the sounds of the wind, the waves, and the seagulls emerged.

Suddenly, my attention was diverted as I noticed how my son and nephew were totally immersed in the moment. Challenging the sand that seemed to capture their feet with every enormous wave, they went from only getting wet from the legs down, to being totally drenched from head to toe. Forgetting about the hunger that occupied their every thought moments ago, they were simply enjoying the moment to be free -- to be free to be who they were.

As I stood there watching and smiling, my smiled turned to laughter as my eyes filled with tears at the unexpected experience of enjoying the same spellbound freedom that they were enjoying. I thought about life, and the choice that I have to be free. Then I thought about how countless of individuals are held captive in daily routines, never taking one moment out of the day to just be - to just be free.

After a while, knowing that this moment must end, I motioned the boys to come on to leave. They yelled, "Just one more time!" "Okay," I said, as I stood full of laughter and tears in my eyes, experiencing my moment of freedom -- as they freely enjoyed their moment without limitations. "One more time," they yelled repeatedly. "Okay, just one more time, " I repeatedly yelled back, until that moment finally did end.

My son and nephew will never realize how their expression of freedom evoked a renewed freedom within me in that moment, on that fine April day. The freedom of knowing that at any time I choose, I can be free to just be me -- just as I did that day. I will never let that moment, that experience, or that choice go.

What an experience it is to be free - to be free to just be me, without self-limitations, or the limitations of others.

What actions must you take to experience your true freedom today?

At any moment that you choose, you too can be free -- to just be -- who you are.

Think about it, experience it, live it, and never let it go!

-------------------------

Copyright 2003 by Audrina Jones Bunton. REPRINTING THIS ARTICLE: Permission is granted to reproduce or distribute this article only in its entirety and provided copyright is acknowledged. You can find other articles to choose from at http://www.purposefully-living.com/mailing%20list.htm

Motivational Speaker, Audrina Jones Bunton was born the seventh of eight children in her household in Pinehurst, North Carolina into a loving and committed Christian home. As she has 2 children, over 40 nieces and nephews and great- nieces and nephews, it is not unusual to find her under the same roof with many of her maternal five-generation family on weekends and on holidays. In her youth, she fondly recalls traveling throughout the U.S. with her family, as her parents ministered from state to state year after year-helping people as they traveled.

A graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a Bachelor's degree in Sociology, Audrina is a Competent Toastmaster of Toastmasters International and serves as the North Carolina District Sergeant At Arms. She is a former counselor of the Durham Pregnancy Support Services, a Christian-oriented crisis pregnancy center in Durham, North Carolina and is currently a Social Research Assistant at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Audrina is currently studying at the Master's Divinity School in Evansville, Indiana with a combined concentration in Biblical Counseling and IABC certification.

She also serves as the Youth Director at the Come As You Are Evangelistic Center in Aberdeen, North Carolina where her mother, Lydia Jones is the pastor.

Modeling after a song that her mother so often sings, and one that Martin Luther King, Jr. often quoted, her life and speeches are based on the following lyrics, "If I can help somebody as I pass along, If I can cheer somebody with a word or song, If I can show somebody he's traveling wrong, Then my living will not be in vain."

Audrina resides with her husband William, and 2 children, Audrina Lorraine and William Woodrow.

---

Business Innovation ? Small Changes, Big Effects

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Penny For Your Thoughts?

Every artifact, every tool, everything ever designed or created by... Read More

Innovation Management ? Isolating Problems and Implementing Solutions

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Great Ideas and Radical or Disruptive Innovation

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Make Ideas Your (& Their) Own: Persuade Yourself and Others

Have you ever watched a TV program where the supporting... Read More

Success Tip From Yachting - Try To Fix The Problem Yourself

At 28, Ellen MacArthur is a world record holder. In... Read More

Seeking Initiative and Innovation? Reward Failure!

Based on Proprietary Research"If you want to increase initiative and... Read More

Mother Of Invention Or Dummy? You Decide!

What would you say to yourself if when faced with... Read More

Business Innovation ? Masks and Trance

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

What Dreams Will Come!

As the pioneers of aviation took to the air (not... Read More

Innovation Management ? predicting winners

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Why It?s Important to Make Your Idea Real

Say you have an idea for something new and exciting... Read More

Business Innovation ? Confidence through Competence

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Enhancing Vulnerability To Master Perfectionism

One of the ways a person must advance past perfectionism... Read More

Business Innovation ? the Creative Process

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Innovation Management ? 5 Ideas An Hour

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Cumulative Gains in Innovation

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Business Innovation ? Good Thinking

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Managing Creativity and Innovation, Part 1 of 2

Leaders, consultants and managers must be competent in at least... Read More

Business Innovation ? Eliciting Talent

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Become an Idea Collector

Have you ever gotten a really great idea ? one... Read More

Mindfulness and Beliefs: Irrationally Yours

I can't help it--I am a confirmed neuroscience geek.So I... Read More

Innovation Makes Leaders

Basically what innovation does is making your business unique and... Read More

How An Idea Can Lift You

What determines your destiny? What predisposes your choices?It is your... Read More

Business Innovation ? the Value of Frameworks

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Going Seamless: Dissolving the Brain Divide

Are you a right-brainer or a left-brainer?The greatest thinkers are... Read More

Innovation Management ? moving past the wall

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

Intuition Power In Three Steps

Have you ever used your intuition to solve problems? Can... Read More

Life ? The Teacher

You've probably heard the phrase "repetition is the mother of... Read More

Business Innovation ? the Best Ideas

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More

The Subtle Secret Of Transformation

Great men and women succeed moment by moment, step by... Read More

Befriend Your Budget, This Yuletide and Always

It is that time of year again. Yuletide?Christmas in the... Read More

Business Innovation ? Good Thinking NOT Leadership

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation... Read More