This Fourth of July weekend would seem to be a good time to express some more gratitude. Yes, as confusing as it has been for this over-the-top anglophile, I am thankful to be American. I am thankful to have been brought up with my compass pointed toward "freedom." I am thankful to have had the freedom to choose freedom, if you know what I mean, even when that has been hard. I am thankful to be a completely free woman. There haven't been many of those through history, I wouldn't have thought. While I have a list of friends to whom I cannot wait to give generous gifts at the first possible moment, strictly speaking I have no debts and nothing shackling me. It might be said that this is as much or more the "American dream" than having a home, a mortgage, and car payments; it continues to present both joys and challenges, but many days, now, the joys have the upper hand.
When I look back on this time, I suspect I will understand that this is the moment when -- the chains of inner and outer restriction and obligation having been shed -- I had the freedom to move forward only in love, through love, and toward things and people I genuinely love. In a world that is trying to press at us from the outside, to even recognize the love flowing out from within must be the rarest form of freedom, and I will celebrate that this weekend.
