Rethinking Independence Day

Traditionally, the 4th of July was a day to celebrate freedom.  But in a world taking a sharp right turn, we are becoming a nation of haters spurred by a former president.  Today, women’s freedom is being curtailed.  The LGBTQ community is at risk. Trans teens are frightened. White supremacists are marching brazenly. And in Chicago’s Highland Park neighborhood, a sniper with a high-powered rifle, rained bullets on spectators at a parade.

Maybe we need to put Independence Day behind us and this week think about personal freedom:

It is so easy to be grateful when things are going our way, but every so often anger and hurt envelop us. We want to greet people and be cheerful with people we love, but we just cannot seem to find our smile.

We want to look lovingly at the special person in our life, but he or she has hurt us. Maybe we are the one’s who hurt someone else and didn’t realize it. But we can feel the tension. Instead of talking about it, we just ignore each other.

But what happens when sadness or anger linger too long and you just cannot muster up those loving feelings? Eventually anxiety and depression set in. This is when Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at University of California at Davis, would be reminding us:

“Gratitude is an attitude, not a feeling that can be easily willed.” Even if you are not satisfied with your life as it is today, he pointed out, “if you go through grateful motions, the emotion of gratitude should be triggered.” Gratitude as an Attitude Sparks Love | Psychology Today. 

He points out that “Attitude change often follows behavior change. By living the gratitude that we do not necessarily feel, we can begin to feel the gratitude that we live.”

Perhaps just finding a moment of beauty in the world can spark a new feeling inside of us — a feeling of hope that will blossom into a positive attitude.