When I was about 6 years old, my father told me I could have any change that fell from his dresser. Pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, are a lot of money for a small child so I turned to ingenuity. I began to sweep the money off the dresser and onto the floor, then pick it up. No rules broken. Not long after, my father began to wonder where all the coins on his dresser were going and asked me about it, so I showed him what I was doing, following the order. He thought it was funny and offered a correction to the dresser rule. And I learned a lot about the spirit of a law and the letter of the law.
There is law for everything. It is inescapable. There is a rhythm, a flow, a coherence to all things. We dance through our days to this thrum of life and follow the rules set down before us. All of nature adheres to an order created from Universal Law. BUT what of the rules we do not wish to follow? What of the rather silly ones? That is when the rebellious nature comes out.
In its purest form, our rebellious nature is not about breaking rules, it is about creating new ones. We of course defy the established order or expectation, but it is not a disdain for rules in general. Imagine when you were a child playing the floor is lava. There is really only one rule, do not touch the floor. You can throw pillows down and hop from blanket, to piano bench, to older brother’s back to coffee table. Everything is in bounds, so long as you do not touch the floor. We are making the rules as we go.
A lot of our established rules are like this. They are perceived limitations where there has not been a creative solution yet. It is a harmonized rebellion, that finds a new path. Those who follow behind them call that new path a rule. We can think of this in terms of Jimmi Hendrix. The world had never seen or heard anything like him. His style went above and beyond convention. He was disliked by many at the time, however, now he is considered one of the greatest guitar players of all time. LIkewise, Martin Luther King Jr. rebelled against the order of his time and sought equality for all people. The collective awareness was not able to embrace this radical love and he was killed for it. Now we revere his work and have all benefited from it.
These rule-breakers, did not want to destroy the peace, or take away order; they wanted to add to it. True order allows for more freedom of the people under its rule, otherwise a system of oppression emerges. No soul can flourish with the pressures of hierarchy following them around. We become paranoid, fearful and preoccupied with perception and less on our work. The thoughts of “Is this okay?” or “Am I allowed to do this?” stymie the very source of being that wants to create. Soon, unless it is balanced, such a system makes rebels out of all of us.
We of course have our examples of rebellion going too far. Many an atrocity has been committed in the name of freedom against tyranny. The key is to find symmetry with our free spirit and the love of order. It is creating new rules and bucking norms for the sake of all, and not only for personal gain. It is then an act of kindness and love when another moves beyond the established order and shows a new path.
Al The Love,
Ryan Orion
Fasting Notes: Today is a great day for rest. My body goes through periods of low fever, to burn the excess for fuel. Today is one of those days. I feel it in my arms mostly. Getting up and down and moving around are all taking more time and I feel the urge to just lay in bed upon waking up. I may be called to live a more sedentary life style or go deeper within for soulful nourishment.
I am hosting a live devotional on Zoom this Thursday, May 1st, at 6PM CT to speak on the process of fasting, part of my journey, and to answer questions.
Ryan Orion 
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