Happy Fourth.

Lots to reflect on today - it's a fun, relaxing day but also one that begs a quiet moment to reflect on those who gave their lives for our freedom. Not only the ones who made the Ultimate Sacrifice but those who sacrifice in small ways every day, who are away from wives, husbands and children for months in foreign lands. Thank you, because there are really no other appropriate words. I like what Erin posted on the CFCC website today:

You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness.  You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.  ~Erma Bombeck

Thanks, E.

I found this amazing blog via a few twists and turns, and I want to share it. Lucinda lost her infant son two years ago to a heart defect, and she wrote about it along the way. Here is the comment I posted on her site, after I spent about two hours reading and feeling and hurting for her.

I just read back through your entire journey of grief and healing (so far, I think it's a never ending process). I lost my father in September of 2008 very unexpectedly due to a heart defect. He was only 54. He and my mother had a special thing with hummingbirds and she collects them now, much as you do for Cooper. Funny how I see parallels between you and me. I had envisioned a tattoo for myself very similar to what you got (a hummingbird silhouette combined with my dad's signature). I suppose our experiences are so different and yet inherently the same. I lost a father, you lost a son, and yet i see the same ups and downs of pain, anger, denial, shock, and amazing signs that he is looking down on you - all lit by brief moments of joy and even laughter. It's a rough road to travel and I wish you all the peace and love in the world. 

It is a never ending process and it rears its head on interesting days. Why today am I wistful and nostalgic? Maybe because I can remember past 4th of July barbecues and grilled shrimp, angel food cake (we fought over who got the icing that gooped in the center, yum), and cigars and beer after sunset. It's a day of celebration and remembrance of all who have left us. I'll have a beer for you tonight, Dad.