There will be no parades, no Statue of Liberty crowns, no plastic flags, no strawberry, whip cream and blueberry decorated pound cakes for me this Wednesday.
My resistance?
No, actually just lack of plans and still limited on mobility.
Besides, that is not what this day—this declaration of independence—is actually about.
With everything going on, one could easily justify going “on strike” this Fourth of July.
And by “everything going on,” I mean this sense of one-thing-after-another-can’t-catch-a-break inertia.
This is what I’m hearing from folks in my life.
And, so much of what I’ve been feeling personally for the last few weeks.
But, wait. The other day, I stopped and wondered:Is it really one thing after another?
- Or am I just looking for the things to add to this list now?
- This list of how my life, my reality and the world is unraveling?
- Maybe things are unraveling and/or maybe we’re choosing to focus on the parts that are falling apart.
Brene Brown reframed the midlife crisis as a “midlife unraveling” in her recent blog post:
The truth is that the midlife unraveling is a series of painful nudges strung together by low-grade anxiety and depression, quiet desperation, and an insidious loss of control.
Ugh. That sounds awful.
And honest.
And useful.
Why? Sounds like an opportunity to me.
To assess what is. And of that: what matters most?
And then the hard question: Are we actually living what matters most?
And this is what the next generation (heck, everyone, but especially kids) is taking in.
Not what we say, what we do.
Show, don’t tell, we’re told as writers.
So, what is this showy, plasticy, red-white-and-blue day about? Especially if this place we claim as our home is having a “midlife unraveling”?
It’s about living what matters most.
Not just “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” No, that’s the “tell.”
Independence, self-sufficiency, innovation, self-expression, transformation, adventure, and faith.
These are the values this country was founded from.
This is what we’re celebrating.
And all of the people who lived these self-evident values into colonies, into a country, into a society.
I believe that what matters most we often take for granted.
It’s good to have a nudge to pause and name what we know.
This Wednesday is a great time as you’re mesmerized by fireworks overhead or those cool, zinger bees that buzz around the ground, to reflect on these deepest values so that we may live them more intentionally.
Live them into the possibilities that always lie within.
May your week sparkle with meaning.
Love,
Jules