Happy Fourth!

I wish us all a Happy Fourth of July! Aunt Jean got this eagle for us after 9/11/2001. We had been up here for two years and were just getting settled in. After living in one place for over thirty years it had been difficult for me to feel that this was home and I wasn't visiting. The world around me did change that morning and hasn't come right yet. I will give this as one example: We had been attending a local flea market during the years and having a wonderful time. It had a carnival or county fair atmosphere complete with ice cream, soft drinks, barbecue and lots of treasures to find. There was a level of laughter, a buzz of happy humanity that made you feel good just to hear.

Then 9/11 and the next time we went to the flea market people still came but it was as if someone had turned the sound down and it is still that way where ever I go. People laugh but not as fully, we do things but don't seem to fully engage. Perhaps it is just that way in my neck of the woods? But I notice the difference. Perhaps it is the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the other unrest in the world that keep the joy of life from showing, but I notice how seldom that joy is let loose in public and I miss how it was. Even at the grocery store, shopping, at the theatre, where ever, it all seems toned down and maybe that is the way it should be.

Perhaps it is a new awareness? Finding out that people hate you and want to kill you just because you are who you are certainly has settled me. Its like the quiet you have with you after attending a funeral. Some of that is always around. I thought it was just me, but it's not. People must have felt the same after Pearl Harbor. Profound sadness. Yet life goes on. I love this country and I feel privileged to have been born here. So lucky! And I truly appreciate that the freedoms I enjoy were won by the sacrifices of many.

I found these two quizzes about the fourth.

So, on a lighter note, if you like, have fun here

http://www.theholidayspot.com/july4/quiz.htm

and here

http://www.riversongs.com/happy/independence_day.html.

Kristine has gone to spend the holiday with good friends and to do a bit of fence painting to add some fun. Tom has gone down to spend the holiday with his family. And me? I'm holding down the fort. Morgan is out with the chickens doing doggie and chicken stuff. Very nice day. It is only 74 degrees in the house. Very nice. I think I will go out and give the chickens some more watermelon rinds to celebrate. No fireworks around here! Not in these dry woods. I sure hope not. Only two eggs so far today. Happy Fourth of July to us!

Smiles