Lawn Chairs, Blankets and Every Year Rituals
Penned in 2015
Written in 2017
Shared in 2018
These are the simple shout-outs to my favorite festivity, my kudos to the pure, easy comfort of tradition
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& when Covid-19 came around and we had to take a pause from the absolutely !! must do !!
there was happiness in knowing, some things never change
& when 2021 announced a few of us would shake things up and have the party at the house with a brand new pool ??
Independence Day sang loud, sang proud, wherever we be.
This year brought reasons to keep it tight, so Husband and IĀ set the offspring, the grands, the niece, the sibs and Dad off on their merry way to celebrate any which way they’d choose, with our quiet declaration, hunkered on our back porch, enjoying the sounds of Summer, come on by, if you’d like …
ahhhh.
& because of life’s little sidesteps and this-n-that’s, the placing of lawn chairs and blankets along the July 3rd parade route has been handed over to the early bird who vows !! I’ll do it !!Ā But if I were to count how many times I had that honor ?? oooooweeeeee. Marking our spot, right smack dab where we sat the year before and the year before and the year before … just because, somewhere down the line, this certain patch of land, we dubbed, ours.
As I stare out my window, trying desperately to conjure up words for today, the realization that people of Highland Park, IL most likely perform the same, wonderfully mundane ritual every, single, time this proud, American holiday rolls around. And my heart weeps, for the sitting HERE because we ALWAYS sit here, doing THIS because we ALWAYS do this innocence that was so unfathomably shattered, in one horrifying moment.
ā„ 4th of July will never, ever feel the same ā„