What do the Declaration of Independence, Buddhist psychology, and a molting lobster have in common?

More than you might think!

With yesterday’s 250th Independence Day, I felt compelled to engage with a little history, a documentary here and there, and a fresh read of the Declaration of Independence itself — since that’s what yesterday marked. Not the moment independence from Britain was achieved, but the moment it was declared.

And one less-familiar phrase from this oft-quoted document stopped me:

“…all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”

Long before many were using the language of mindfulness, the founders were naming a universal human truth: We are very good at staying with familiar suffering. Even when an old form no longer serves us, it may still feel safer than the vulnerability of letting it go.

Which brings me, once again, to the lobster and the wisdom of unlearning. When we grow, we often have to break free from the hard shells that once protected us. For a while, like lobsters, we may be soft, exposed, and unfinished. Liberated, but defenseless.

Freedom, then, is an inside job. Sometimes it is expressed as a bold declaration. Other times, it begins as the quiet recognition of what we have grown accustomed to: a pattern, a role, a belief, a way of protecting ourselves that we may be ready to move beyond.

And interestingly, independence is rarely achieved alone. It often requires community — others who share a vision, a purpose, and a willingness to connect with something larger than our separate selves. Whether forming a new country or a new way of being.

So this week, I’m appreciating the bravery of those who keep reaching for freedom, in large ways and small ones. And I’m holding these questions lightly: