Freedom. That is what we celebrate this week-end. It is so important that we are given three days to ponder the gift of our forefathers and mothers.
I always have a problem with three-day weekends. I love them. But I have a problem. The anticipation is great and they come so rarely. I start to worry as soon as they begin for fear that with every passing minute the long weekend is beginning to end and I have done little to put this precious time to good use.
The Fourth of July weekend this year is no exception. In fact it is worse than usual. It comes after a rather intense couple of weeks of court schedule so I need the rest. The blood pressure issue of a couple of weeks ago and the busy work schedule required me to put off a whole list of things to do that still haven't been done, so, I desperately need to put in a day or so of work around the house just to make it livable. And for once I actually made plans months in advance to do something really cool for the holiday weekend, but as often happens, the best laid plans of mice and men aft gang agley, and so did my plans, so now I am planless.
It is appropriate on this holiday to think about freedom. I love to think about the high-minded soaring freedoms that we associate with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution that ultimately resulted. I spend a great deal of my life defending those freedoms and rights, in the courtroom and on the soapbox.
But right now the most obvious restraints to my freedom are the piles of clothes that need to be washed, the bathroom that needs to be cleaned, the floors that need to be vacuumed and mopped, the car that needs to be washed, the bills that need to be paid, and, well, you get the idea.
The less obvious chains that restrain me are more subtle. Those worries and heartaches that occupy my mind without my permission, those things that cause one's blood pressure to spike when no method of release or escape can be found.
I have learned in my years of standing on a soapbox that change does not come quickly. The chains that hold us back are secured tightly. Sometimes it seems that nothing is changing at all. And sometimes that has caused me to step down from the soapbox and try not to care about the things I feel convicted about. Patience is not an easy thing.
But I have decided that this weekend I will do what I can to gain a little more freedom for myself. I will get some of my house in order, literally, but not try to do it all. I will do a little writing and compose a couple of songs to free my mind. I will find a lake to jump into to cool my body and refresh my soul. And I will seek out the company of friends, old and new, to loosen the chains that bind my heart.
And I will eat barbecue and watermelon and ice cream and watch fireworks.
Right now I am going to get more coffee and get started . . .
On a pursuit of happiness.
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