My Personal Declaration of Independence

Here we are, coming up on the Fourth of July weekend, and I have to admit that I'm thinking more about where to go to see the best fireworks than about how grateful I am to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave. At the forefront of my mind is whether or not I'll have a hotdog this weekend or I'll be a good girl and stick to my veggie diet.

Don't get me wrong. I love all of the freedoms living in a free country affords. "Live free or die!" as they say in New Hampshire. But, for me, real freedom is a very personal thing. It begins in my heart and mind. If I don't feel free, then all of the military victories ever won can't make my heart sing. If I don't believe that I'm free in every aspect of my life, all of the government decrees ever written have no meaning. We can talk about freedom on a universal level, but unless it applies to our every lives, it's just empty words.

Think about how Moses led the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt. He commandeered an incredibly dangerous rescue mission to get them out of there, but they still couldn't wrap their hearts and minds around the truth that they were really free. They felt lost. They felt deprived. They didn't feel free. So they wandered in the desert for 40 years!

Well, as for me, I don't want to wander through life. I want to feel free -- physically free -- like having a body that moves and grooves without any pain. I want to experience freedom -- like being financially free. And I want to talk, think and believe from a clear and honest heart and mind.

Those are some of the freedoms I want to realize in my life. And, to help me to really feel and know that I am free, totally free, in every sense of the word, I've decided to take the Declaration of Independence personally. You're free to join me, if you'd like. You're also free not to.

Here it is:

My Personal Declaration of Independence

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one person, namely Me, to dissolve the bands which have bound me and kept me from being who I truly am and meant to be,

and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitles me, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that I should declare the causes which impel me to the separation.

I, hold these truths about myself to be self-evident, that

I am created equal, that

I am endowed by my Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that

Among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, my own awareness of the preciousness of my life and my place in this world has been instituted, deriving its powers, not from what anyone else says is true of me, but from my own firm conviction and personal consent,

That whenever any personal thought, belief or action becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of This Person to alter or to abolish such thoughts, beliefs, or actions, and to institute new thoughts, beliefs, or actions, laying their foundation on such principles and organizing my powers in such form, as seems most likely to effect my Safety and Happiness.

I, therefore, solemnly publish and declare, that I am free and independent, that I am absolved from allegiance to all that no longer is representative of my true self, and therefore, I have full power to conclude peace with myself and others, contract alliances, friendships, and relationships, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which whole and independent persons may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the guidance of divine Providence, I pledge my Life, my Fortunes and my sacred Honor.

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