Holiday Weekend

 

This weekend many will be celebrating the Fourth of July. Events in modern times may bring you complicated feelings about our nation and the idea of patriotism. However, the day is still worth celebrating. The ideals of the Declaration of Independence are good ones if we truly strive to apply them to everyone. So lets think back to simpler times in our youth. What was your favorite Fourth of July event growing up?  I have many happy memories from those long ago summers. One that sticks out in my mind is the neighborhood fireworks watch. The trees have long since grown too tall but when I was in my early teens, we could see the town fireworks display from the bottom of our street. Each year all the neighbors would gather together to watch the show. It was never an official planned event. I don't even remember bringing chairs. Everyone would simply come out of the homes and congregate in the street. We would talk to people we often only waved to driving past and laugh with ones we wished would cut their lawn more often or shovel the snow from their sidewalk. Then, the group would hush as the colorful light display illuminated the sky. Conversation would pick back up as the show ended and everyone slowly walked home, each family reluctantly saying goodnight when they reached their driveway. Many years have past and we've lost some of the crowd. I'd like to go back to one of the those nights even if only for that magical sense of community we shared. Take a few moments today and try to capture a similarly warm feeling to commemorate in your journal.