Independence Day is just around the corner. While it’s a great time of fellowship and patriotism, our perspective of fun as adults has often dimmed over the years.
While I always look forward to our backyard cookout, I am also reminded that I am the one responsible for buying and preparing all the food. Heading to the local fireworks stand with the children to buy sparklers and a few fun “bigger fireworks” is a family tradition. But honestly, in today’s economy, I am watching the budget as they tally up each of our choices. Once back home, there are so many responsibilities that need my husband’s and my attention as we prepare for our guests. We have to get the lawn mown, find the bug zapper, check our supply of paper goods, and locate the sunscreen. I will cut the watermelons while someone else fills up all the water balloons for our annual water balloon fight.
As parents, we can agree that celebrating anything seems like a lot of work, but do you remember celebrating the fourth like a kid?
That childhood anticipation of waiting all day for your cousins to arrive?
Does your mouth water as you recall the taste of the grilled hotdogs your dad burned?
Or can you remember turning the crank on the homemade ice cream freezer and asking, “When will it be done?”
Did you go back to sneak a few more of the yummy red, white, and blue desserts that were piled high on the food tables?
Can you still feel the grass on your bare feet? Do you remember what it was like to run through the yard trying so hard to hit someone with a water balloon?
Did you spend time planning what blanket would be best to sit on as you looked up at the fireworks extravaganza?
Do you remember how scared you were when the finale arrived? Yet it was so exciting you never wanted it to end?
As the night grew late and your mom told you it was bedtime, can you still recall feeling that this must truly be the best day of your life?
Children look forward to summertime and the excitement of celebrating the fourth. They have such a unique and innocent perspective of the world. They take it all in with wonder and excitement. Their eyes are blinded to the hardships. They enjoy the moments before them. We adults need to remember and enjoy it from a child’s perspective. May your Fourth be filled with magical excitement this year.
Happy Independence Day!
