Today we celebrate the 4th of July. We remember the forbearance of our country's founding fathers when on July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed. The Declaration of Independence which justified the colonies pulling away from England and becoming an independent nation.
But more than the celebration of the anniversary, the holiday reminds us to honor the values on which our country was founded, that each and every person has inherent rights, self-evident truths.
We hold these truths to be self-evident; That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The wisdom of the fathers who came before us, who created the framework on which our country hangs, thought it important enough to remind us that they signed it in ink, that it is our right, our unalienable right, as Americans, as human beings, to pursue life, liberty and, don't miss it my friends, happiness.
Pursue happiness.
Whatever happiness might mean to you.
I've been doing a lot of thinking about what it means to me. What shape happiness takes for me, personally, today.
My interests change now and then. Likes become dislikes, ebbing and flowing like the tide. And yet what I am amazed to realize, and yet maybe not so, is that though activities make me happy, they do not bring me happiness. It is not the action that brings me joy.
No, for me, true happiness is found in the intangible. In expressing emotion. In human connection. In love. In faith and hope and laughter. And in the belief that we have been put here to make a difference and that it is my unalienable right to find every way to do so.
Pursue happiness. Celebrate!
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