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Breaking Free: Labor, Liberation, and Living on Purpose

• Terri Wilson

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What if the way we've been taught to think about work is fundamentally flawed? Labor Day offers the perfect moment to question our relationship with work and consider a different path forward.

When Merriam-Webster defines labor as "a dull, unpleasant or difficult piece of work," it reflects how most of us experience our jobs – as burdens rather than blessings. Many of us are caught in what I call the "matrix merry-go-round" – working endless hours at jobs we dislike, just to stay afloat financially. We're "Just Over Broke," dependent on systems that were designed to keep us exhausted, compliant, and unable to pursue our true purpose.

But there's another perspective worth considering. Throughout spiritual traditions, work is framed not as punishment but as meaningful contribution. The biblical view presents labor as part of our divine purpose, with Colossians reminding us to work "heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men." When we begin viewing our efforts as service to something greater than corporations or paychecks, everything shifts.

Breaking free from the matrix doesn't happen overnight. It's a journey that requires courage, persistence, and trust. Perhaps you're still punching a time clock but dreaming of independence. Maybe you've moved to freelance work or started a side hustle. Whatever stage you're at, remember Ralph Waldo Emerson's wisdom: "Without ambition, one starts nothing. Without work, one finishes nothing." The path to freedom requires both the vision to begin and the persistence to complete.

This Labor Day, I invite you to reconsider what you're laboring for. Are you building someone else's dream or your own? Are you planting seeds for future freedom? The journey of ascension – of rising above limiting systems – requires effort, but it's the most worthwhile work you'll ever do. Join me in creating a life where we're truly free to just be who we were meant to be.

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Speaker 1:

It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage that we move on to better things Is a quote by Teddy Roosevelt in 1899. Welcome you back on this Labor Day in America 2025 to Free to Just Be, the podcast empowering humanity to courageously step out of old patterns and matrix programs and give a big old hug to new ways of being. And I hope this finds you on Labor Day in the greatest health, with vibrant energy today, because you have chosen to accept full responsibility for your body, mind and soul. Here on Free To Just Be, we're going to try to inspire each other to truly be who we came here to be, which, of course, starts with authenticity, being fully transparent and brutally honest with yourselves, and that ushers in freedom, and then we can begin to be aligned with our highest potential. So join me, teresa Marie, your traveling ambassador of Chi, on this transformative journey to rewrite our narratives and live lives of purpose and passion. Ah yes, another Labor Day has reached into the Western world and we are all pretty much all of us are off today, and we are all pretty much all of us are off today, and we have a some of us a four-day weekend, some of us a three, and it's because we all need a break, we all need a rest, we all need a respite from labor. And let's look at what labor means, shall we? Let's get a view of what Labor Day means and how we can apply it to this incredible transformative journey to ascend, to rise up, to new ways of being right.

Speaker 1:

So the definition, according to good old Merriam-Webster, of labor it is a dull, unpleasant or difficult piece of work. That's what labor means, as in a job, a J-O-B, which for most of us really means just over broke, because that's how the matrix system has designed it. Now we're going to go with the matrix for a few minutes and then we're going to talk about what God, our creator, had in mind for labor. So let's look at some of the similar words describing labor. Shall we? A burden, a beast, a load, a grind, sweat, a chore, a strain, a nuisance, a killer, full of effort, drudgery, drudgery, trouble, heavy lifting, a weight? What are some of the antonyms, the opposite of labor, and of course you know so we can also include energy, toil, elbow grease. To travail, to attempt to effort, to strain. Labor also means power muscle, to try to try to take a stab at, to use your might, to endeavor, and all of those things are synonyms of labor.

Speaker 1:

And what is labor? Again, physical or mental exertion, especially if difficult or exhausting. That would be work. Now, we all would like to live our lives without any work, to live lives of ease. You know the antonym. The opposite of labor would be ease inertia, inactivity, dormancy, inaction, laziness, id, idleness. Some would say smoothness.

Speaker 1:

Now we strive, we work, most of us five days, some of us who want to get over that matrix hump. And how do we get out of this matrix rat race, the grind the hamster wheel? How do we get off the this matrix rat race, the grind the hamster wheel? How do we get off the matrix merry-go-round of labor? Well, we still have to labor for that, because everything in life requires effort, because you have to be able to create, and that requires effort. There is absolutely no human masterpiece that's been created without great labor, said Andre Giddey. So labor is required. Even if we want to get off the matrix merry-go-round, it's not going to happen, like you know, by a magic wand passing over us and everything that we do.

Speaker 1:

As MLK Jr said, his quote was no work, no work or labor is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with pain, staking excellence. And see, this is where we come into the difficulties of living in the matrix, right? Because, as Aristotle tells us, pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. And how many of us hate our job? So how many of us are not putting perfection in the work because we find no pleasure in the J-O-B? Thus the matrix merry-go-round, because the majority of us, because of the way the matrix is now running and how they run the money machines and how they run all of it and they suck us dry so that their pockets can be lined.

Speaker 1:

Most of us are living just above broke and a good majority of the Western world, especially in America, are working far more than five days a week, far more than eight hours a day, just to make ends meet, just to choose between their bills to live and survive, to be able to have a house, a roof over their head, to be able to afford food and medicine and gas for their vehicles. So if we want out of just above broke or just over broke jobs, then the next step is to work for oneself right To be a 1099, to be entrepreneurs. Well, a true entrepreneur gets to the place where their money is what's laboring for them, and now they have passive income and they can literally stop the grind and maybe just you know direct their passive incomes. But do the people that have passive incomes, that are entrepreneurs, that are literally living lives of ease because they have four or six or eight forms of passive income, did they get there without laboring?

Speaker 1:

No, no, anything in life is going to require effort. Life is going to require effort and, as Mother Teresa reminded us, the miracle is not that we do the work here we go, but that we are happy to do it. So let's apply this to the ascension journey. If no human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor, if we want to ascend above and out and get off the freaking matrix merry-go-round, then we are going to have to do things different than we've done before, because surely by now we know that whatever we want, we can achieve it. Anything at all is possible. That's even what the Word of God says If we're willing to do the work, if we're willing to make the effort, if we're willing to follow through. But what do we end up doing? What does the matrix set us up to do.

Speaker 1:

Well, at the end of each day we're judging our harvest. We may work eight or 10 hours in a day and we don't see the instant gratification. And we're just efforting, efforting, efforting, and it really becomes a grind. Now there are people all around the world beginning to wake up to that, beginning to say you know what? I am tired of working my ass off to pay somebody else's college degree. I am tired of having to work two or three weeks to be able to afford going to a dentist and keep my teeth in good, good health. I am tired of going to a doctor who's charging me way more than the services that he provides so that he can afford a Lamborghini, while I can't afford freaking good, clean protein on my plate. So see, people are waking up that there's something not quite right in Denmark, right, but again, we can't just check out, we can't just fling ourselves off the matrix merry-go-round without a plan, so to speak. A plan, so to speak, without a way to begin to turn the page and begin a new way of being, aka not being dependent on the matrix merry-go-round, not being dependent on the J-O-B's. But in order to do that, we have to be courageous enough to trust God.

Speaker 1:

Now let's look for a minute at what God says about labor and work. Well, the Bible presents work as what A grind, an irritation, something that we have to do. No, it presents work as a gift from God, not merely a burden. In fact, in the second book of Genesis, he places Adam in the Garden of Eden to work, it indicating that labor is going to be a part of the original design for humanity. Right, and this perspective encourages us to view work as a meaningful contribution to this beautiful planet we live on. Right, diligence and integrity those are virtues that we should really be diligently seeking in our lives. It's important.

Speaker 1:

And what does Colossians 3 say? Oh, one of my favorite verses and yet one of the verses that are the biggest irritant Colossians 3, 23 and 24 says whatever you do Okay, so you're a janitor scrubbing toilets or you're a CEO in a penthouse office making mookoo butts? Well, whatever you do, you work at it heartily, as for the Lord, and not for men, because we need to remember that, whatever it is that we're doing here on the planet, we are literally working for God. One of my mantras these days is thank you that I work for God and he not a boss, not a bank, he provides my everything, right. But it also, in the Bible, teaches the absolute necessity of rest.

Speaker 1:

And this is where the matrix grind comes in. And oh, buddy, not only does it want to, you know, be the energy suckers, the vampires in our pocketbooks, in our checkbooks, in our wallets. They, you know, want to take every cent that they can from us. They want to keep us down. They want to, you know, all of those negative things that we know the matrix does. So if the matrix can keep us just spinning out about that, now we know the issue.

Speaker 1:

The matrix, as opposed to God's way. God's way was we work the land, we ascertain things in the planet, right, we have a piece of land, we work the land, we grow things, we sell them, we barter. But no, no, now there's a one or two percent that controls everything we are literally living in. You know the century-old hierarchy system where there's somebody above and we're below. You know, we're not pounding out bricks, we're not making the mortar, we're not under slave drivers, so to speak, with the whip keeping us. You know, if we're idle, dude, you're going to feel the flick of that whip back in those days, right, but what whip do we feel? The whip of taxes, the whip of the economics that is for those money controllers and keeps us dependent on them.

Speaker 1:

So, as people are waking up and saying, no, we want to only depend on God, well, we have to begin dismantling ourselves, and the more people that dismantle themselves out of the matrix merry-go-round and it may be and the majority right now of people that are beginning that ascension journey, that have went ahead oh, buddy, here comes the red pill and they got kicked in the belly, but they did take that red pill and they're beginning to taste the bitter taste of the reality that we've been lied to, that the matrix is running our lives, and so, to begin with, it may not be the financial system that we're ready, that we are courageous enough, that we are bold enough, that we trust God enough, because this is a trust walk. Folks, this ascension journey is no freaking joke. It is the biggest part of this journey, and one of the biggest parts is leaving just over broke and trusting that God will provide your needs. Now, I can apply that to the fact that I have not punched a clock for somebody else in almost two years now. Well, actually, over two years now and I'm not quite working for myself because, see, doordash is not working for myself.

Speaker 1:

I am still in the grind. Now I can make my own hours. Oh, big plus. I don't have to answer to anybody. Big, big plus. I can work anywhere, any city, any town. I can turn my phone on. I can work morning, noon or night. I can not work morning, noon or night. I can make my own schedules. I can be at every family event Big, huge pluses. Can be at every family event. Big, huge pluses. Downfalls. I'm in the car a lot more than I want to be. Some days I only break even.

Speaker 1:

But see, this was this particular Sojourners, because we are all on this journey. We're all on this adventure of figuring out how to get back to freedom, how to get back to independence, how to get back to being free to be who we are and who we are, our love and light, dependent on God and God alone, and not what just went off. We want to get away from being tied to electronics, tied to this stinking thinking way of living on a matrix, merry-go-round right. So what else does the word say? Work is not solely for personal gain. It serves a greater purpose, actually the greatest purpose.

Speaker 1:

In Ephesians, in chapter four, it talks about how honest work is, so that individuals can share with those in need. Think about all the different jobs that actually uplift. I mean really jobs that actually uplift. I mean really when you stop and think about it. The way technology is and every little tiny piece of J-O-Bs feed the bigger J-O-B. Right, we are all necessary. There has to be people who drive the food across the country, there has to be the farmers, there has to be the cooks. All of those things are literally for the common good and are reflections of God's love.

Speaker 1:

But you know, we don't always see it that way. We see it as this incredible burden and we're pissed off that we have to get up and it's a pain and we want to live lives of ease. But in order to live lives of ease, it comes with a cost. And when we begin to fully give ourselves to working like we were working for God, because we literally begin to believe that our labor is not in vain, that God promises that we're going to reap a harvest of good if we just don't give up. But now let's come back full circle and let's talk about the labor of this ascension journey. What we need to do is like what Robert Louis Stevenson said so we don't judge ourselves, he said. Stevenson said don't judge each day by the harvest that you reap, but by the seeds that you plant. Okay, so you've just started this journey. You just realized that you've been lied to and that there is um, there's really no pony at the end that you have to create it. It's all you, there's. There's nobody coming to save you. Right, there's nobody coming to save us. It literally is us.

Speaker 1:

Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best Without ambition, one starts nothing, nothing. If you don't labor, you don't work. Nothing happens Without work. One finishes nothing. If you want off the grind, you want out of the hamster wheel. It is a progression all right. So you have just over broke job, then you.

Speaker 1:

Well, I'll use myself as an example. I'm not punching a clock anymore, but I am a 1099. I'm working as an independent contractor for this DoorDash system. So now my next step is the courage to say you know what I am now going to create, something that people will pay me directly for. And that is the arena that I'm in right now. I am formulating my plan.

Speaker 1:

I'm not ready to let go of DoorDash, but I'm not ever going back into the punch clock, right, but it's still an incredible effort. An incredible effort that on Labor Day, when the majority of the people in my little country, tennessee town, are off, and the majority of them are probably nursing a hangover, because those of us that are just over broke when we have a day off, we want to fully escape, and that usually requires alcohol or substance abuse. I'm just being real here, folks. And so, because I want out of the next step, I want to be independent, I'm going to have to get my happy little ass out and labor on Labor Day Because I can serve the need of the people that want to sit at home and enjoy Labor Day and I will make some money, because they don't want to get in their car and go pick up their own food. You see how this works. So where are you?

Speaker 1:

On the exit pathway off the matrix merry-go-round, and if you start looking at it and think about how every single seed that you're planting further out from that, you know, hey, wherever you're at, maybe you're still spinning on that wheel saying, man, I am so tired of this, the weekends go by too quick and I'm so sick. Well, allow that being sick and tired get you so sick and tired of being sick and tired that you do something different and then you put in the full effort, like you were working unto the Lord, and say God, between you and me, we are going to make it. We are going to achieve the goal of being independent, of being free to just be who we were meant to be, because we were never meant to be on a hamster wheel, we were never meant to labor in vain. So if you want to stop being a slave to the government, then you're going to have to get some courage to begin this ascension path which eventually will take you to the place of your finances.

Speaker 1:

That's not the place that most people begin the ascension journey. It's usually one of the last pieces. The ascension journey usually begins with a lot easier stuff, like realizing your water is poison, and you begin simply by getting a filter for your water and you start looking at your food and so on and so on. It's a journey, folks. It's not a sprint. The Matrix merry-go-round will make you believe that everything has to be instantaneous microwave mentality. And this is a journey of all journeys. It's the journey of a lifetime and we will all achieve it if we begin to work on it together. So, on this Labor Day, enjoy your day off, enjoy where you are in this ascension journey, pat yourself on the back for all the things in the matrix that you have already walked away from. But please, please, please, remember that even the ascension journey, it's not a magical thing. We don't just arrive as an entrepreneur without putting in a lot of effort.

Speaker 1:

And so I want to close again with Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote and remind us that without ambition one starts nothing. What do you want to start this fall? Fall is a great time of newness. You might look at it as, oh, you know the summer's I mean, I'm a summer girl but if you look at it, there's new, fresh air coming in, there's winds of change coming in. It's an opportunity to close out the year with a bang. So what have you started? Ooh, ooh I am pointing those three chubby fingers at me because I have been pretty idle. I have been oh, I'm justifying and saying, well, I've been in a transition. I just, you know, I left being a single person out in Florida by myself, and I'm just transitioning. Well, that's BS, teresa Marie, you've been home for six weeks now the transition's over, girlfriend, it's over, right. So what is it that you want to start?

Speaker 1:

Maybe there's another aspect of exiting the matrix that you put on idle, put on the back burner, that you are justifying, like Teresa Maria's. Remind yourself without that ambition, you're starting nothing. What else did Ralph say? Without work, one finishes nothing. What aspect of your ascension journey is it time to finish?

Speaker 1:

Maybe you're so close to the finish line of that one little thread of the matrix. You're just, you're 98% out, and maybe it takes an act of courage, you know, maybe, maybe it is. You're going to level up and you're going to say I am so sick to death of this job, all right, so maybe you need another J-O-B, but maybe it's going to be a J-O-B where you're a little bit happier than the last one. But you have to have the courage to say you know what I don't need to hold on to the 401k I don't need. My emotional and spiritual health is more important than what they're telling me they're going to offer me. Maybe it's, you know, you're holding onto the job because you feel like you have such a need for medical insurance. Ooh, maybe that gap in between is why you're absolutely miserable.

Speaker 1:

Five or maybe six days a week, eight or 10, or maybe sometimes 12 hours a day. So the prize will not be sent to us folks, and Ralph Waldo Emerson closes us out we you and I are the ones that are going to have to win it. There is a pony under all that pile of matrix BS, and that pony is worth working for. And when you begin to work for the Lord, you will end up being a whole lot happier. You'll be at peace, knowing that every step you take you're dropping seeds for the next step out and away from the matrix, and one day you'll be more at ease than you were the last. So enjoy this Labor Day and remember that we are not laboring in vain if we are on the ascension path laboring in vain. If we are on the ascension path, we're building stairways to heaven. I love you, humanity. Peace out.