God Bless America!

Happy 4th of July! We have no set plans today. The kids are scattered to the wind with work, friends and other "stuff". Mike and I have an endless chore list of stuff we need to catch up on, so we will be house bound, sweeping, cleaning and getting ready for the book release party in a couple of weeks.

In passing, folks have asked us what our plans for the holiday are...Mike and I have both always had jobs where working holidays is the norm and making plans was out of the question. Today, although we are both home, is much the same.

Mike has to get up at an unsavory hour tomorrow morning and head back to work. Most weeks he works 6 days and doubles along the way, graciously supporting me until I can stand on my own two feet. I continue to press forward, pushing hard on my marketing plan to sell the current book, all the while starting the work on the next book.

I was thinking about what it means to be an American today. Unfortunately, lately, the middle class has taken very large hits economically, professionally and faithfully. I say faithfully because I , like so many others, try and have faith in our democracy and those who run it. What we have seen of late, is they have run it right into the ground. I still believe in the Constitution of the United States and what it means to have real freedom. Although, I disagree with how my country is being run, I still believe in the flag waving, hard working, faithful American people who do the living and dying in this country to keep it working and protected.

My America and the freedom it allows, are the average folks who are not able to take today off. They are the store clerks, the nurses, the airline workers, the policemen and women, and the fire departments. They are still humming along, as if it were any other work day. All so I could enjoy the benefit of security, and grilled hot dogs.

I said a little prayer of thanks and hope for the military personnel, who so far from home are putting their lives on the line everyday, not just for our freedom, but in effort to help others experience what we so often take for granted. I asked that they are able to show for even a second, what it is like to live and breathe in freedom. There is no greater feeling than knowing without doubt, that our individual rights are protected everyday and that no one force is greater than the collective voices of the American people.

As I run the vacuum, I hum "God Bless America" and try to remember while I am doing my chores that I have the greatest blessing of choosing my own fate, be it today, tomorrow or 20 years in the future, thanks to the genius of the forefathers who wrote a single document protecting me and all I love.

May you have a joyful 4th of July today and some point find yourself humming "God Bless America".