Constraints are the New Freedom, and Other Seeming Contradictions

"I can't paint a mural, all I have is black"-me

I'm going to do something different.  I don't have a wall to paint, because I live in a college apartment and the manager won't let me paint the walls.  There is a way around that.  I think I am going to get a sheet of butcher paper or some cardboard or some wood to work on, and then paint a mural.  In black and neutral.  I was thinking, just because I have limited resources doesn't mean I "can't do it." It just means I have constraints.  

Often constraints are what make a work interesting.  Oft times they will define the work.  As a member of the LDS church, there are a lot of standards we are advised to follow.  Many times I have been asked, "Aren't those rules restrictive?"  Yes, but not in the way many people would suppose.  They only feel negative when you don't understand why or don't believe in them.  For me, they offer definition and raise my "standard" of living.  They make me an interesting person.  For example, I don't drink coffee this would make me peculiar to most people, it also saves me an estimated $1,092 per year according to the culture-ist magazine.  

How freeing! I have $1092 to spend! 

I also don't believe in creating constraints where there are none.  I guess this manifests itself in testing limits.  I was a mild mannered teenager.  I'd always heard that teenagers were awful and I did not want to be another rotten teenager, so I behaved rather well.  What I didn't know was that there was a purpose to that rotten-ness.  Teenagers are testing the limits.  They're actually not doing anything different than the previous 13 years, they're just more aware of the limits to be tested.  Once you test your limits or decide your limits or whatever, you define what those limits are.  A person who knows their limits, knows where "they" are.  They know where they begin and another person ends.  

It is a beautiful idea to know your limits.  It is a huge portion in self actualization. I believe this life is a learning experience and "the knowledge we attain unto in this life will rise with us and give us so much the advantage in the world to come."  The more we can learn about ourselves, the more we can become like God.  For as he says, "I am,  that I am."  That is the most self actualized statement ever.  Literally, he knows exactly who he is.  I can honestly say I know only parts of myself.  That is why I try to get to know myself better all the time. I have a relationship with myself and I'm learning more each day.