As June ended, I said goodbye to a longtime spiritual friend. It took several years for me to accept her invite to her church because I was busy, I felt I knew who God was and I was sure God knew me too. I studied independently and felt free to do so.

Then one day because it was important to her, I attended her church. There I found positive lessons and people that gave validation to what I had already been studying. I had found a group to learn with and not lose my freedom of thought.

While I sat through her Celebration of Life, I couldn’t help but recall our many positive spiritual talks. I will miss her physical presence in my life, but know her spirit is now truly free and returned to God, our Creator.

Unity has a bird in flight above our platform – it’s symbolic of the soul’s freedom in its flight and return back to our Creator. To me the bird is symbolic of the risen Christ finding freedom after the resurrection.

Last Saturday, its symbolism seemed even more powerful to me since this week we are celebrating our independence and the freedom we have living in the United States.

As a parent it is our job to help our children learn to be independent and it is natural for children to look for that. We no longer put children in play pens; we want them to be free, to explore their world.

Thinking on it, freedom and independence is naturally within us. We enjoy our freedom in many ways, but, because we have it, we can easily take it for granted.

When meditating on being free, thoughts of those who are dying to enter this country and live our freedom came to mind. I began holding them in prayer and in my mind’s eye I could see our flag. A flag that is symbolic for freedom around the world and that led me to look back to 1776.

I wanted to know what the colonist wanted to be free from. What influences did they want changed? Who was trying to control them or have power over them?

Once again, my Internet searches didn’t disappoint. Soon I had more articles than I needed, yet the underlying energy I wanted was not found. My questions were answered, but the answers were no different than what we would want today. The majority of us today would not want another country to tell us what to do or how to live. Most of us do not want to be spoon fed information. We want to hear about it, research it and hear about it some more and sometimes many years later we enjoy the freedom of going back and hearing it again.

We like being free to find our own understanding and create our own little space in the world where we are free to think and do and be. More importantly, we like living in a country with choices.

I continued to look for a deeper spiritual connection, that held an underlying energy, which represented our independence. Through an opening in my mind’s eye I saw the American flag and began digging more. Our original flag had 13 stripes alternating in red and white. With a Constellation of 13 white stars representing the Union formed in a circle on a background of blue. (You can find more on the evolution of our flag at www.usflag.org)

When chosen in 1776 the colors had no specific meaning, but, a spiritual look found: the stripes were alternating. Very symbolic of how we use our own mental thoughts as we sway from one thought to the other until reaching a healthy balance between both. The color red is a symbol of courage, action, strength, confidence and is full of emotion. White is a symbol of purity, faith, light, safety, goodness and new beginnings. Blue is a symbol of confidence, stability, wisdom, truth and intelligence.

Looking symbolically, you can see the red and white colors can be considered opposites of each other. This thought would be great for you to meditate on because we all have what these colors represent active in our lives.

The energy of the final color, blue, is wisdom, truth and intelligence. Adding blue creates balance and leads to the underlying energy in the circle of stars, symbolic of wholeness, totality, completion, timelessness and eternity.

My family and I completed Saturday watching the spectacular display of fireworks provided by the Lake Orion Fireworks Association. I pondered the freedom I enjoy which included: freedom from this life back to spiritual life, freedom to practice my faith, to research and learn, raise my children and to do it in an environment of joy and peace.

For this, I am truly grateful.

I pray you take a moment this week to be grateful for your freedom and independence.

Happy 4th of July,

Linda La Croix

Unity Director at Unity of Lake Orion

“Like” her Facebook page, A Spiritual Walk, or visit her

website at aspiritualwalk.com