WHAT a wonderful holiday! What a wonderful day it was. And lucky for us in Georgia, we had clear skies all day, followed with a much needed rainy day today. (usually it is the clear skies AFTER the 4th and rain to dampen all of the fireworks)
We started the day, finding the cutest little doggie and becoming friends. He took a special liking to Kaya and even was playing fetch with her within 30 minutes! Once Uncle Gav showed up (driving down from Kentucky to spend the weekend with his surrogate fam), we headed down to Midtown to meet up with the rest of the ATL crew.
We stopped at a wonderful restaurant called Steamhouse Lounge. They are a remodeled house with a multi level dining area, outdoor patios, the works. They have a mostly seafood menu with a few burgers, polish dogs and TRIPLE cheese grilled cheese sandwiches. They have a phenominal Shrimp and scallop quesidilla and any place that serves the kids entrees with tator tots is a win-win for us!
Once we were done devouring our meals, half of the crew headed to Lakewood to rock out with Ziggy Marley and 311 while the parents headed up to our house to have a Star Wars (Return of the Jedi) marathon and firworks...
Baby Garvie and Kaya became such good buds, Kaya treater her like she was her own (I hope there is no separation anziety today!) After a few more hours, when the sun finally went down (for our four year old, the anticipation I swear, made him age another 4 yrs!) we headed out to see the fireworks (and light off our own). What fun! Everyone in the neighborhood had their fireworks to show and it made for a wonderful nightcap to the evening.
Maybe it is because I am getting up there in age, maybe it is because I try to look a little deeper at the importance of everything these days so that I don't miss a single opportunity or maybe it is just in trying to make sure I am teaching the kids everything I possibly can every step of the way...I am not sure what exactly it is. I just know that we are so blessed to be able to have a holiday such as the 4th, to celebrate on such a National level and that, the celebration of our freedom is something so many people (myself included) take for advantage on such an idividual level...
We spend so much of our lives and our enegry making sure we conform to what we 'think' others expect of us. Spend so much time worrying if we will make the grade with this person or that. We stress over so many minor details that truly have nothing to do with the sheer bliss of being alive and free and we let every day pass forgetting that we are here to be ourselves. That combined, every single one of us, staying true to the freedom to let our soul ring live with the truth of who we are inside, that we create this wonderful world we exist in, combined, one unified element creating the reality we wake up into every day.
Ultimately, though we do reside in a country in which we have our "freedom", I believe that we, as humans, are denying ourselves the true freedoms we have as a being with a heart, soul and mind to make all of our dreams come true, all of our ideas facts and all of our fears obstacles we overcame...we need to reach within, find the reality within every breath we take and soar on the happiness that is being alive...free to breathe and free to be.
And make every day Independence Day, never conforming from who we really are and what we really should be.
