My World and Welcome to It!

These are my thoughts and opinions about life in general. I also get daily prompts from DSP which inspire me to write. If I throw in some scrapbook pages I've done, photos I've taken, and stories about me, you will have an idea about my loony life!

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Independence

Independence is very important to me. It involves freedom and choice. I want to be independent enough to make the choices that are best for me. I want to be able to support myself if the need arose and be educated enough to know what my options are. I love my husband more than anything in the world but if anything ever happened to him, I want to be independent enough to survive. Before we got married, I graduated from college and we waited a year so that I could live alone and learn to support myself. I didn't depend on family or friends in order to pay my bills, feed myself, or enjoy life on a day to day basis. This doesn't mean that I isolated myself from my family and friends but I had confidence in my ability to survive. Independence means also that I am able to make the choice of being emotionally attached to people. It gives me the freedom to trust others and open myself to their ideas and feelings. There is also a lot of responsibility attached to independence. I need to respect others rights to independence even if it something I do not agree with. I need to understand that other's need for independence is just as important to them as it is for me and sometimes those needs may conflict or overlap. I also need to know that Independence may involve give and take as long as I don't compromise my values. These are choices that I have the ability to make. Without independence, I would not have freedoms or choices.

5 comments:

Glynis said...

I totally agree with everything you said! Have a great holiday!!

Unknown said...

You are right, we so think so much alike. Although my learning independence came between the marriage of my first and second. Though I still tend to think of the fact that I was darned stubborn, lol. You know, I will do it my way.... All the way.

Unknown said...

Pat, you sound like such a strong, independent woman. i hope i can become a little more like you!

faery-wings said...

I enjoyed reading your post, esp. since I seemed to focus more on the isolation aspect. It was great heqaring a different perspective.

Karen said...

Totally agree. With independence comes responsibility. And Ithink that independence means that you don't stay with your partner because you feel you have to. You stay with him because you feel you want to.