Independence Day

Happy 4th of July. I'm so grateful every year for all the lives that have been lived and have been cut short to protect the freedoms that we enjoy living in the USA. There has been much written about the multitude of freedoms that we have so I will not talk about that now. But will just be very grateful.
I do have so many happy memories of the 4th. When I was growing up we had a big - to my young perceptions anyway - parade and lots of fireworks. I can remember lying on a blanket on the grass near the city pool were they were set off and watching them explode overhead. One year I remember my father taking us to a road overlooking the city and watching the fireworks from there.
The year my daughter was only a few days old, we had a HUGE thunder and lightning storm. My husband and young son were 20 miles away at the fireworks show, but I got a much more dramatic show than they did. Lightning hit a transformer about a block from our house so we lost electricity. I could see bolts of lightning coming down very close to our house and the thunder was almost simultaneous with the lightning. In those days I was terrified of the storms and sat at the bottom of our stairs with my daughter in my arms. I trembled while she slept through the whole thing.
Now I sit with my dog in my arms while she trembles and I try to soothe her. She HATES the noise - especially the ones that whistle.
So, I hope your 4th is filled with memory making fun and that we will all spend just a few moments being grateful that we live in a land of the free and the home of the brave.