catching days...

the 4th always brings back so many memories. we had such grand celebrations when i was young.  it was the real beginning of summer   it meant road trips out to the country with the car piled with  more people than it could hold.  kids fighting over who got the window seat and coolers packed with food and drink. there was the family whiffle ball league,  the grandmothers threw out the first pitch on memorial day and the season ended on labor day. i had no idea then how meaningful all those days would come to be.  it did teach me how important family is and how much love there was in
that circle. what i didn't realize then was those days gave us life and food for future years, i  am amazed by the memories that endure.  how the 4th brings back all those days,  how the memories burst in my heart like a firework that explodes in the night sky, with sparks that reach out and trickle down then disappear.  how each part of the day brings back a memory, a song, a smell, a person.  now i look at the night sky and i squint to see you there,  i know you are looking down watching us making  new memories and smiling.  i have these little stones of memories, shined to brilliance by being turned over and over in my mind. 

thank you for all of it.

an excerpt from the poem that my cousin moe wrote in 2001. 

the greatest gift of all

"when nighttime finally drew her curtain, one of the last treats we could be certain,
at the closing of this day, the needham fireworks display,
it was the frosting on the cake.  we all piled in the car to make.
that bitter-sweet and sad goodbye, (still even now tears sting my eyes)
hurry up we mustn't dally
who would "win" the grand finale??
as dazzling rainbows mesmerized,  back then, we never realized,
just how much they'd mean today when the smoke had cleared away.
back then we were to young to know, it was the love that made it so.
the fun, the food, the merry choices, the lilting sounds of loved ones voices,
echo in my thoughts this day, as i send a hug your way,
for in my heart i hear them still,  and i know i always will,
as i lovingly recall,  fourth of july and whiffle ball.

love was the greatest gift of all  -mlc"  xo

and our new memories.

hope you had a happy fourth... any good reason to celebrate.

love sent, xo