I loved writing my thank you card; I was able to feel a new celebration for my life and the way I have lived it. How great because Friday is the Fourth of July and Celebration is in the air, quite literally.
 As I pondered this writing and appreciated my freedom to say whatever is on my mind, and knowing there is you here reading it, I felt the humble rumblings of Joy rising from my heart to yours. I heard the Joy of shrieks and awe I felt as a young child, watching that gigantic show in the sky, sometimes burying my face in my fathers chest, but always peeking out to see and hear the next great explosion, now clapping and jumping waiting for the next and the next. Children are JOY! And I reflect on those nights that only came once a year. Family picnics, hot dogs and corn on the cob, Oh, and the cotton candy and pretzels as we sat in the park. It seems like only yesterday, and in the eternity of life it really is.
 All this week there will be great things said about Independence Day, Freedom and the great men and women we honor, and truly we do. But when all is said and done I must ask myself, “what have I done with my life?” “How have I honored myself for all of my creativity and hard work?” “Do I love myself enough to celebrate my Freedom to Be Me?” As I wrote and decorated my thank you card to myself, I remembered Maya.
 Maya Angelou said, “Thank You Is The Most Powerful Phrase I Can Ever Say, Thank You, Always Say Thank You; It's The Greatest Gift You Can Give Someone; Because Thank You Is What You Say To God.”
I love these words from her, especially this week: “I am truly grateful. I’m grateful for being here, for being able to think, for being able to see, for being able to taste, for appreciating love -- for knowing that it exists in a world so rife with vulgarity, with brutality and violence, and yet LOVE EXISTS. I’m grateful to know that it exists. And I’m grateful to know it exists in me, and I’m able to share it with so many people.”
Her words help me remember my freedom, to Celebrate the Love I have learned to express, the healing that authentic love brings, the sound of gentle praise and soft blessings - often never spoken. I love the years it took me to finally embrace myself and care about ‘who I am’. I am a trained and skilled Minister taught to ‘take care of others’; I had to learn that in the scheme of things I was valuable and important too.
 EMPOWER YOUR FREEDOM TO LOVE AND CARE FOR YOU and you will expand your capacity to love others exponentially. In the heart of all lies the potential for deep and abiding Love.
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