Happy 4th of July, Independence Day and our celebration of Freedom!
I was recently inspired by my neighbors, as I surprisingly oftentimes am, and amazed by their diverse opinions, careers, and what are choosing to do in their lives. A young mother who’s just published her first book, a dedicated fireman who is advocating for his grandchildren’s school, a retired Executive who is writing her father’s war memoirs, a soldier with dreams of finding buried treasure, a moving company manager that umpires minor league baseball, a bartender that can map her DNA, and the list goes on and on. See when you live in a town of only 3,500 people they are all your neighbors and their stories are meaningful to me because as they work towards their goals they improve everyone else along side them.
The diversity of these people reminded me of the definition of Freedom; which is the ability to have choices. We all have things we must do but when we get to choose the things we want to do we are free.
My hometown is a safe place, where people are supportive of other people’s choices. If you want to go do something almost nothing can stand in your way, in fact you’ll receive mostly encouragement for it if not active assistance. I have been able to accomplish so many of my dreams here, and I can’t really imagine anywhere else in the world that I would be able to do that. I have lived in a Villa in northern Italy and a shack in Guatemala and only in my hometown can I truly have the ability to make choices that reach for a higher potential and experience freedom. It is incredibly inspiring to see those around me growing in a place that wants them to be free. I appreciate every day more for it and wouldn’t live anywhere else because of it.
Freedom can take many forms but to me real freedom looks like family in a baby blue Golf Cart shaped like a Retro Jeep riding down the street with a giant American flag and beach floatys and this kind of freedom you find in my hometown, Colonial Beach Virginia.
