This week marks another anniversary for our country's freedom - Independence Day. Each year we celebrate as neighbors, communities and a country as a whole the freedoms we have living here in the United States. I certainly appreciate living here. I recognize that we do experience rights here that are not the general rights in all places on the planet. That people here tend to live a higher standard than many people in some other countries and that I have a lot of choice in my life. I appreciate that I can vote and that I can speak relatively freely about my beliefs and values and that I feel pretty safe. Not everyone is our country can say that though, and I recognize that too.
 

I don't believe however that we are independent or that as a nation, we are actually free. We are all dependent. Each individual has some amount of autonomy but even that has limitations. We are all dependent on one another, on our environments, on our governments and on people and governments far outside of the US. There is no way around that and I can't see a scenario where having it otherwise would create a better world for any of us. I think for that to happen we should begin to celebrate our connections and recognize how reliant we are on one another.
 

On a personal level we are not independent either. Independence means "to self govern and to have sovereignty over a territory". Each of us certainly has some ability to self-govern of course, but we have a structure within which we do that and certain boundaries that contain our rights. Some may believe they have sovereignty, supreme power and authority, over the territory of their lives but I see and hear more talk as if they have little or no control. Both perspectives, I believe, are illusion.

Can we be free? Jump on over to my blog for some thoughts about that and the concept of "inner-dependence".....

And if greater "inner-dependence" intrigues you, watch my  video below for a fun offer to deepen your yoga journey.

Blessings and until soon,

Leslie