Today is July 4th. Independence Day.
Yes, it celebrates our independence from Great Britain in 1776.
But we have a misunderstanding about independence . . . true independence.
And we don’t seem to learn. In fact, we don’t seem to want to learn.
We think as children we have to rebel against our parents to be independent. But how independent are we if we are rebelling against someone? No more free, really than if we are complying with someone . . . because there is that someone to whom we are reacting. This is true whether our parents support us to become ourselves or control our growth, imposing themselves upon us. Either way, at some point we need to find our selves on the inside, not as a reaction to someone or something else.
When will we ever learn?
We think as a nation that we have to war against other nations to be independent, that we have to free ourselves from other nations. Our use of oil is a prime example. If long ago, when we realized the damage our use of oil was doing to our earth, our home . . . if then, instead of denying it, instead of fighting it, instead of taking our slow time making changes, we had found a way to live healthier – healthier for us, each other, and our Mother Earth – we wouldn’t have had to turn the truth into a fight for freedom against other countries, other peoples, and even our own land and peoples.
When will we ever learn?
We do not have to become independent from other people, other countries. We need to become independent within ourselves … free to know and live the truth, and free to be in relationship with others (as different from isolated). Free to be the truth of who we are, with integrity and compassion within ourselves and with and for others.
When will we ever learn?
We cannot do this from the outside in. Our efforts to do so will not last. The only way to do this and sustain it as a way of life, is to do it from the inside out. To go back to the place we went awry – even as long ago as our early childhood – and do the inner healing to redevelop ourselves as Selves. Then we can be truly independent and inter-dependent. Then we can be truly free.
When will we ever learn?
May we use this Independence Day to make a commitment to real freedom, and take the next step toward fulfilling that commitment.
May we find our way to real freedom . . . from the inside out.
May you find your way to real freedom . . . from the inside out.
©Judith Barr, 2010
* The title of this blog post is based upon a line from Where Have All The Flowers Gone words and music by Pete Seeger performed by Pete Seeger and Tao Rodriguez-Seeger ©1961 (Renewed) Fall River Music Inc All Rights Reserved.