Last year on the fourth, we filled the day with endless fun, feeling freshly recovered cheeks burn again under Cali's relentless sun.
Traipsing across the town with new friends in patriotic colours, taking pictures like tourists and laughing at murals.
Last year on the fourth, I realised that coconut and lime sorbet should probably not be mixed, and that singing 'happy birthday to America' in public is strange, but amazing.
We cooked a feast large enough for nearly twice our size, before laying out on the itchy grass on our backs to watch the fireworks over the baseball field.
Last year's fourth seems like so long ago, but alas, it was only 365 days. What happens this year seems to be the same as the years before the last fourth, only it is different.
This fourth one of us is half-a-world-away, and the rest of us will be missing those who are, all the long long day.
As we eat the traditional food, and have the usual conversations, it's so easy to forget what it is we're celebrating. 241 years ago, a war that began, and would seem to never end, when we decided to fight for freedom, against those treating us wrong.
But the war did not only begin, on July 4th, 1776, or end, 1781, it continues on today, each and everyone has something they're fighting against, for freedom is never truly won until we are at peace. And peace can be so hard to find on the rocky sea that is life.
But on this fourth, take a break, breathe deeply, and live, if for just a moment. You are alive, and sometimes, that has to be good enough. Maybe set a goal for who, and what you want next year you to be on this day, but for now, try to be content with the now.
The awaited promised pictures from one of the many days spent in California last summer:
So very festive, aren't we?
Red, white, and blue boy.
TCBY.
~Fireworks!~
Looks like a dandelion. =)
Bonus picture of me and Saige from last summer, which truly looks vintage if you ask me, on a different day, but still patriotic.
Also, if you have animals, be sure you're home so the fireworks don't scare them--their ears are most sensitive than ours are. What did you do for the fourth?
<3
~Lu
