Today is your day of freedom. How will you celebrate it? We look forward to these national holidays, but do we stop and reflect about what they really mean, when they started, why it is important to continue to celebrate them?
Over the years, I have noticed a real drop in the celebrating of the reason we have these national holidays. It is just another day off. I was recently talking with some folks who were gripping about this 4th being on a Wednesday and how it messes up their whole week. What? Upon further inquiry, I was told we are doing nothing special. kicking back with some BBQ and Beer. Really?
When I was a kid we lived in Washington D.C. and every 4th of July we went “touring” and ended our day on the lawn by the Washington Monument fabulous very loud fireworks.
Today, I love to watch the movies that celebrate our history as a young nation and all the patriots with big dreams for this untamed nation with its vast spaces and I feel pride swell up inside of me. I have often asked myself: “…would you have had the guts, focus, determination and fortitude to do what those men and women just did?….”
Take a moment today with all the eating and lounging and fireworks and think about those who came before you to make today possible for you to be off, even if it is a Wednesday.
Thank you to all of you and those before you who serve us (the citizens of the United States) in our military to make today possible and to all those who serve us in the many other ways that make our Freedom possible. You may be out of the headlines and nightly news, but you are never out of my prayers and gratitude.
Freedom isn’t free, you have to really want it and we all need to work at keeping it!
