I am a patriotic American, through and through. I work for a Federal social services organization, so on my first day on the job I had to take an oath VERY close to the one administered to those who serve/d in the military take when they are sworn in. I take my oath and my job very seriously, as I do my love of my country. I am forever grateful for my freedoms.

This day also makes me think of how grateful I am for being free from abuse. It will be six years this coming September. I literally thank God EVERY DAY. Every day! Every day is freedom day for me. I get to do life on MY terms…I might not be brilliant at it, but I am doing it! Safely and without being controlled by someone with ill intent.

I was looking up “freedom” quote online that would apply to America’s Independence Day AND my personal Independence Day (from DV) and found this list of amazing ones, courtesy of the Today Show’s website:

  • “Better to die fighting for freedom than be a prisoner all the days of your life.” ― Bob Marley
  • “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” — Angela Davis
  • “Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness.” ― Frank Tyger
  • “May we think of freedom, not as the right to do as we please but as the opportunity to do what is right.” — Peter Marshall
  • “Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.” — Jean-Paul Sartre
  • “The secret of happiness is freedom, the secret of freedom is courage.” — Carrie Jones
  • “Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be.” — James Baldwin
  • “He who is brave is free.” — Lucius Annaeus Seneca
  • “The function of freedom is to free someone else.” — Toni Morrison
  • “Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves.” — Abraham Lincoln
  • “I have tasted freedom. I will not give up that which I have tasted.” — Harvey Milk
  • “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” ― Nelson Mandela
  • “I’ve found that there is always some beauty left — in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you. Look at these thing, then you find yourself again” ― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
  • “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will.” ― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
  • “No one loses anyone, because no one owns anyone. That is the true experience of freedom: having the most important thing in the world without owning it.” ― Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes
  • “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” ― Audre Lorde

Enjoy those quotes, as they have a double meaning! May the Fourth be with you, safe and happy within freedom! Love and light!