Happy Independence Day

Most of us are familiar with the battle for independence that our country waged in the 1700’s. We wanted the right to speak our minds. We wanted our interests to be represented, without it costing us everything we owned. We wanted to be able to defend ourselves, without fear of recrimination…

I sometimes think about how difficult it must have been to make the decision to travel across an entire ocean, to a piece of land that was unsettled, unfamiliar, and foreign, and make a new life. The new world was wide-open, in every sense. New land, new laws, new challenges, new habits, …new everything! As exciting and full of potential as it was, it must have also been frightening, because independence has a price. And not just for the colonists. In fact, one of the greatest challenges of independence, whether you are a new country trying to set-up a legal system, a young adult heading off to college, or any person just recognizing a personal right to choose how to live your dreams, lies in determining what to do when anything can be done.

Marianne Williamson, author of “A Return to Love,” said, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”

 As much as we want independence, the freedom to do, have or be anything at all, we also know that our limitlessness comes with a responsibility to achieve greatness. And that responsibility scares us. If we are, indeed, powerful beyond measure, then we are powerful enough to live our own dreams. We are powerful enough to have the families, the jobs, and the homes that we want. And if we are powerful enough to, but are not living out our dreams, then why aren’t we?

Our countries independence came with a price: the abandonment of the familiarity of one way of life, the leaving of the safety (however precarious) of the homeland, the trade of what was “known,” for the “unknown.” This is the same cost we endure when we exercise our independence in our lives, today. Because of this, we become afraid to exercise our independence, to choose what we want, to speak of our dreams, to share our thoughts and ideas, to excel. We are afraid of the cost.

What if we weren’t? What would each of our lives look like if we exercised our independence and just had faith that our richest lives could be ours and that the cost would be worth it? What if we recognized that we really do have the power to make our own choices, that we are not victims, and that we are free to chase our dreams? We are not subjects to any king… not our jobs, not our spouses, not our children, not our financial circumstances... We choose. We are independent to guide our own lives across deep waters and enter into a new world.

I hope for you this holiday that you are able to celebrate your own independence and your freedom to choose to live the life of your dreams. Happy Independence Day!