My Fellow Floridians,

Today is the beginning of our true Independence Day. 

Are you truly free?

If you love freedom, please stop what you are doing for one moment and please do this for me:

Grab a piece of paper and a writing utensil. It could be a pen, pencil, crayon, or marker. If you have a choice of colors, grab your favorite color! Now, draw a beautiful spiral. 

How do I draw a beautiful spiral? Try this:

1) Start at the center. 

2) Continuously draw a circle around your center never letting the line touch the inner line. 

3) Keep going until you have covered the entire paper. 

4) Fill in the gaps with all the things about your life. 

5) Now imagine the spiral IS your life.

6) Is it beautiful?

Start At The Center. 

Let me ask you these questions. Thank you for taking the time to reflect on these things!

What is at the center of your life currently? Is it YOU? Or something else?

How does your life look? Is it full of love, gratitude, care, compassion, generosity, freedom, health, motivation, positivity, nature, beauty, music, smiles, and joy?  

Or does it look a bit different from that? Maybe your life spiral just looks busy. Busy, messy, expensive, annoying, anxious, depressing, tedious, tired, sick, and sad? 

If your life truly looks like the first spiral, that's amazing! Keep it going! Keep building your spiral and telling other how to do what you are doing!!

If your life looks like the latter. I'm asking you to join the fight for OUR collective independence. Stop being busy. Let's begin a whole new spiral right now!

Start At The Center... YOU.

The center of your spiral is you. At that center is your breathe. The breathe of life. 

If I gave your a certain amount of money (let's say it's a rather large amount) and told you when your dollars ran out, you drop dead. Yikes! I'd probably be more careful what I do with that money. 

What if I told you that the ONLY WAY to increase your amount of money from what I originally gave you was to pay attention to your health. Interesting... I'm listening... What's the plan? I don't want to die. I want to earn more money so that I can live longer! 

Well, personally, I would start by paying attention to everything I eat or drink. That's a good start. Fruit, veggies, honey, nuts, seeds, salads, superfoods, cleaner the better! I'd look at everything! Every label, every ingredient. I don't want anything keeping me from increasing my dollars so that I can live longer! Basically, I would know everything about everything that line from outside to inside. 

I'd exercise, get out into nature, love on my family and neighbors more. I'd be super careful not to do anything stressful because that would affect my health and therefore, my amount of money, and therefore, the moments I have until I drop dead. 

I also wouldn't listen to anyone trying to sell me something, claiming it would increase my health without doing my research. I would be absolutely certain that that thing they are trying to sell would indeed increase my health. Then MAYBE I would make the investment. But that's only if I couldn't generate that health myself, with my own efforts, without spending anything. 

Now let's get back to the center. Change every word in the previous paragraphs from MONEY to BREATHE. That changes things a bit... 

Death = Bad. Life = Great! 

Let's recap:

1) We'd want to EARN more breathe. (Earn means to gain as a result of our actions.)

2) We wouldn't want our breathe to run out. Nor our families. Nor our friends and neighbors. 

3) We'd pay attention to what we eat or drink. Probably we wouldn't trust the grocery store or any health gimmicks. We'd grow our own food because that way we'd be sure it was the most nutritious possible. We'd be entirely and fully educated on how to live FOREVER!

4) Exercise, nature, and love a lot! 

5) We'd avoid stress and unhappiness like the PLAGUE it is AND everything that causes it. 

6) We wouldn't waste it unless spending it meant we would earn more of it with interest. 

7) When we did something that increased our breathe, we would share it with the world. We would tell everyone with passion how to do it for themselves. 

Draw The Circles Around The Center

I am at the center of my spiral, my collective universe, my world. Therefore, I am responsible for everything and everyone in it. I own it. 

The center of the spiral is one dot. The lines that surround the circle are made of a multitude of closely connected dots that originate from me. These dots are my choices. My choices make up the design of the spiral; my life. I get to fill in the empty spaces with my choices too. 

Every choice designs my life's spiral. That is my responsibility. That is my creation. I own it. 

So I ask you again, how does your spiral look? 

Now that we have identified that we are responsible for the manner, condition of everything around us, let's reflect on a few great questions?

Do you have freedom? 

"Freedom, oh freedom, well that's just some people talkin'. Your prison is walking through this world all alone." - "Desperado" by the Eagles. The song is written by Glenn Frey and Don Henley. 

Imagine your days on vacation (holiday). You wake up with the sun feeling great! That's freedom. You take your time with your coffee. That too is freedom. If you have kids, they don't bother you as much this morning because you aren't rushing. There's probably nature around you too. The beach, the forest, the mountains, a foreign country, an island... breathe in all that freedom. 

Then the moment comes. You have to go home. Back to real life. Are you happy about that? Your answer is huge revelation about the health of your spiral. 

Did you go on vacation because you chose to go? Did you have to ask permission from anyone? Hmmm...

How's the condition of your house?

Do you take responsibility for the condition of your house? How about your bed? Is it made? Is your house clean? Most importantly, do you like the way it is? 

Have you ever said, "Well I'm too busy and I don't have enough money to hire help!" 

That's your choice. It's your world and your responsibility. You own it. 

What about, "Well my kids and spouse don't care. They don't help me. Why should I care?!" 

That too is your choice. It's your world and your responsibility. You own it. 

This one is personal. "Well I don't know how to do that! I can't fix that. I don't have time to learn. I don't have enough money to hire a professional." 

That has been my choice. It's my world and my responsibility. I own it. 

Do you care for and about others? 

Do you really care for and care about those other living beings around you? Your spouse, your kids, your pets, your neighbors, your neighborhood, and your greater community are also all your responsibility. 

This is your world. You own it. 

Do you ever ignore your family? Do you ever neglect your kid's or spouse's needs? Do you ever get annoyed and speak our of emotion at your family, spouse, or pets? 

Do you ever drive like a jerk? Do you ever yell profane things and curse other drivers? Do you ever curse your neighbors, judge and gossip about what they're doing wrong? 

I have. I've done those things. This is my world. I'm responsible. I own it. 

How is the spiral looking so far? 

If you are not feeling so good about your spiral, I want you to know that I'm right there with you. 

Four months ago when I made a choice to stop abusing alcohol (gave up my attachment to it), I woke up to a few realities. This is a small part of the realization that I do not like the design of my spiral. I began to realize the world that I created. It's a broken, untidy, unclean, disorganized, busy, chaotic, disastrous mess! 

I woke up to this mess and my next words were, "What the actual F*&$!!!!!!!"

I realized there is a profound darkness working on my world while I slept and distracted myself with a variety of unnecessary choices. My choices were destroying my world. I blamed everyone and everything for the condition of my world. Personal responsibility was nowhere in my sight. I did this. 

The feeling I had in that moment was quite overwhelming and profound. 

I though, "Where do I even begin?"

Start at the Center... YOU!

You are not cursed. You are not flawed. You are not FUBAR (if those of you know who know what that means) or rather, you are not broken beyond repair. 

Like me, you may not like the spiral you have created so far, but the great thing about a spiral is that at any moment of those closely connected dots, you can begin a brand new spiral. You have the ability to do this because every moment of your life is yours and therefore, you are at the center of every single one of those closely connected dots. 

It's rather simple. Make a choice. Learn from the past. Think about the details of your life's spiral. Start a brand new spiral! 

It's your world. Your choice. Your responsibility. You own it. 

I am a part of your spiral. 

If you are still reading this, I am a part of your spiral. You obviously want more freedom and believe in what I'm writing. If you need more understanding and direction, I am happy to be here for you. I do offer more personal guidance. Let me know if this is something you need. 

If you have been blessed by this message and feel inclined, you may give a blessing at Venmo: @gregwhitejr Cashapp: $gregwhitejr or paypal.me/gregwhitejr. 

Love and gratitude are the only tools in your belt that you need to begin creating a new reality. I am grateful for your support as I continue of my mission to spread this great news. 

We can live in a perfect world. It simply starts with you and me. Our world. Our choice. Our responsibility. We own it.