About Freedom ROCKS
Freedom ROCKS!!
Coming through the emotional healing process was very often like squeezing through the eye of a needle. There were roller coaster weeks and seemingly endless days of walking for miles in the desert. There were times when I cried out ‘stop the world, I want to get off” but there came the day I knew that I was never going to face the kind of confusion, depression or oppression that I had lived with for so long, ever again. I knew that I had “Emerged from Broken.” I felt so “free” so grateful and so full of life. I started to use the expression “Freedom Rocks!” as a way to describe the joy I felt. Freedom from everything that had been weighing me down and holding me back was so new to me. It felt so fresh and invigorating; I felt so alive and freedom just “rocked” so when Lauralee shared her idea to throw a rock into a body of water with a key attached to symbolize “closing a door and throwing away the key” We started brainstorming about what to call this “event” and it seemed natural, even obvious, to name the rocks and the event ~ “Freedom ROCKS”
My article “My Mother Doesn’t Love Me and the Process of Grieving” is one of the most popular posts on Emerging from Broken; since it was published in November of 2011 the conversation continues and to date it has generated 613 comments. It was in that conversation that the concept of throwing a rock and key in the river symbolizing “taking a part of our lives back” was born with Lauralee first sharing that she was going to do this and then Mimi sharing that she wanted to do it too. I jumped in; I thought it would be really positive and empowering to create an event where everyone all over the world could participate if they felt moved to do so; each person with their own motivation for creating and throwing a “freedom rock”. I imagined how amazing it could be if people all over the world were taking physical action symbolizing reclaiming a part of their life or symbolizing that an abusive part of their life was over, knowing that others were doing the same thing at the same time in other locations.
Most of the readers here have suffered trauma and or abuse of some kind in childhood and in this website “emerging from broken” we look at what that trauma or abuse caused us to believe about ourselves. We look at where the damage originated in the first place in order to heal from it. Freedom Rocks is about closing a door when the healing is done in a certain area. It could be about making a decision such as “from now on I am going to take care of me; I am done with coming last” It could be about embracing the healing process itself or celebrating a milestone in the process. I am going to draw a key on mine to represent that “the key is self love” but your key might represent something else like the key to a door you are ready to shut.
So get a rock big enough to draw or write on. Here are some other ideas:
~Names of people that you want to take your power back from
~A list of the lies you always believed about yourself that you now realize are not true
~having escaped being under the control of an abusive or controlling partner, parent or boss
~letting go of the belief that any of the shame or blame belongs to you and putting the blame back where it belongs
Whatever this means to you, on the weekend of May 12 and 13th each of us in our respective places in the world are going to take the freedom ROCK we created, find a body of water and cast the dang thing into the depths as a symbol of life, living and freedom. This is about overcoming or even just the hope to overcome trauma, and the resulting depressions, struggles; whatever it is that is significant to you. This is about embracing the real truth about you and about me. It is about self love, self care and self empowerment. It is about living, loving and thriving.
Because there is so much power in sharing specific stories like this I am giving Freedom ROCKS its own page and category. That way everyone will have a place to share their experience of throwing the ROCK, what it represents to them and the emotions surrounding it and it will all be in one place.
I hope that this event and these pages will be inspiring and liberating and at the same time I hope they will create unity and permission for others to pursue this same freedom that comes from doing whatever it takes to heal.
If you are interested in the actual conversation about how Freedom Rocks got started you can read it here on the post “My Mother Doesn’t Love Me and the Process of Grieving” starting with comment number 233 on January 9th 2011 by Lauralee. Most of the conversation about “Freedom ROCKS” in the comments by Mimi, Lauralee and myself.
I will be adding links to this About Page in the future, about guest posts, stories and future events related to “Freedom ROCKS”
Looking forward to hearing about your experience with “Freedom Rocks” As always, remember that you are welcome to use any name you wish when commenting on Emerging from Broken. Only the name you use in the comment form will be seen by other readers. Your email will not be shared. Please remember to sign up for updates in the right side bar (and look for and reply to the confirmation email) if you would like to receive future information about Freedom ROCKS.
Darlene Ouimet
Founder of Emerging from Broken
Related Post ~My Freedom ROCKS~ emotional healing and self love by Darlene Ouimet (before the rock throwing)
