Give Thanks...Watching Fireworks With The Family

Like millions of others this summer, our family gathered to carry on a generations-long tradition...watching fireworks. With us, we had three of our four children and the newest member of the family, a son-in-law.

I am a blessed man.

We parked the van, our adult kids climbed atop (because our folding chairs were in an unreachable corner of the garage...) and we all waited for the show to begin. We were relatively late to the hospital parking lot, located several hundred yards from the city park no doubt packed with humanity, all waiting for the same thing.

The sound of sprinklers starting caused us all to laugh, especially those who chose the grass near the hospital to set out blankets in order to watch the fireworks on a slight hill. They quickly scrambled until finding other vantage points from which to see.

Then, the sky lit up with color, different chemicals igniting different colors, shapes, volumes, all in an effort to entertain, delight, even inspire. I waited for proper illumination to catch the faces on top of the van. The end result turned out the way I had hoped.

Once the final explosion faded into the night, the sound echoed for the last time off the surrounding hills, we packed up and headed out, trying to get ahead of at least one more car. 

I'm grateful for that experience we had. I'm grateful my family shared it with me. I'm grateful little towns exist in our country, where people gather and enjoy a sky full of fire. It was a good night.