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So with Independence Day once more upon us here in the U.S.A. there have of course been a plethora of documentaries, movies, plays and books about our Revolution and our Founding Fathers.

I love these stories. I get chills thinking about the rag-tag group of soldiers sitting in the cold, hungry, tired, defeated - listening to the words of Thomas Paine and Common Sense before they fight the dreaded Red Coats again. I always feel my shoulders rise a little straighter and my skin prickle when I hear the words of Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Patrick Henry repeated over and over.

And of course:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Wow. Just wow. Maybe it's the way I was raised, or the things I've seen and people I've met growing up. No matter. Those words still cut straight to my heart.

This year, though, I've been struck with an whole different idea.

These men were the Founding Fathers.

These men were my Founding Fathers.

It is a humbling and strangely uplifting thought to know that more than 200 years ago a few men risked their lives to create a country that one day would afford me so many things that so many people around the world do not have.

These men didn't just give life to a new country with new ideals, they gave birth to a new kind of person. Great people who've followed of course. People who changed the world. But people like me too. And people like my husband. And that's something. Because maybe we aren't changing the world in a single deed, or even a single lifetime. But if I've learned anything from my family and ancestors, it's that it's not the huge things that matter - it's the footprints we leave.

Our Founding Fathers left a lot of footprints to follow. And a lot of room for us to find our own path. They are big shoes to fill. But the cool thing I realize now is that the shoes aren't meant to be filled by one or two men. But by all of us. Because we're Americans, linked inexplicably to heroes from centuries ago by a simple pledge, declaration, of allegiance. I'm in a way related to Thomas Jefferson and John Hancock.

And in that way I'm also related to anyone who believes themselves an American. Being American isn't about blood or heritage or parentage. It's about allegiance, in any form, to the same ideas that were put forth in the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution.

And that's a really awesome feeling.