My Declaration of Interdependence

In 2013, I received an email from a Unitarian Universalist pastor in Palo Alto, California, Reverend Amy Zucker Morgenstern, who asked me if an internet posting I had made in February 1999, long before such things were called "posts", could be included in a packet of worship materials she was putting together for distribution to Unitarian Universalist churches all over the country. I told her that of course I would be honored. I guess the piece remained in use, because three years later I was contacted by the Unitarian Universalist Church in Whidbey, who was planning to use it in a worship service and invited me to attend. A short internet search this morning shows that the piece has also been used by Progressive Christianity dot org, by the Association of Global New Thought, who have it posted several places online including on a slide show, also by Singing Heart Yoga, because of its resonance with Buddhism, and has been referenced by the Co-Intelligence Institute and a website called Abundance Created Together, and many others.

I am sharing the piece here to allow you to know the heart of who I am and what I believe.

The Declaration of Interdependence

We hold these truths to be self-evident:

That all life is interconnected, and endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights and responsibilities,
That among these are presence, compassion, and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights and responsibilities,

We open our minds and hearts to the needs of others, and our own true needs,
We hear the sound of the living universe in our ears, and add our voices to the song,
We live every moment with awareness of the purity and power of existence.

And for the support of this Declaration, we pledge to each other our love and our breath,

For the freedom of the one is the freedom of the all, and the pain of the one is the pain of the all;
The breath of the one is the breath of the all, and the breath of the all is the breath of God.

Melanie Bacon

February 14, 1999