What are the markers that you associate with your independence?  Being debt free? Living in a way that you are being true to yourself? I want to encourage all of you to find the way that you feel most able to think and act without worrying about the input of another.   Synonyms include being self-sufficient, self-supporting, self-reliant and able to stand on one’s own two feet.  As we are looking at independence, I want to you to think about where you feel like you are most truly standing on your own two feet.  What is it that you are doing and learning and experiencing that you feel you have true balance on your feet? Where do you feel the most alive and independent?   

For the nation right now, it is important to recognize that our definitions of independence are so severely different depending on our backgrounds, our experiences, our beliefs and our unshared visions of what it means to be free.  For many groups Independence Day brings up the reality that we are not as united as the United States name may imply.  July 4^th this year comes amid national attention on racism and police brutality, the most divisive presidential campaign in modern history all while experiencing a pandemic.  July 4 is far more complicated than the backyard barbeques and fireworks which are not able to happen due to Co-Vid and taking care of the public health through responsibly social distancing and wearing masks.  For many groups the country’s founding principles being celebrated-one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all-simply are not part of their experience.  July 4, 1776 was not a day of Independence for all and for many people still this is a reminder of how far from these ideals and this feeling of being able to act without the input of another they are. How can you use your bold and free-spirited maverick capable of thinking and acting to better recognize and bring to fruition these principles?  What can this mean for you?   What can this mean for how you are acting and thinking?