Monday, July 04, 2011

day 45
Happy Birthday America 

Dipping Dish by Hope Johnson
When I was 18, I began saving my money. I pushed quarters through a slit in the top of a coffee can. I dropped deli and ice cream parlor tips into a piggy bank and after college, from my first adult job, placed modest savings into a mutual fund I had read about in Money magazine as I soaked in the bathtub. 

Refresh my Heart's Linen Ice cream
 Sleeves in pretty blue
The  truth is, I always wanted to go far away----to get lost. By the time I married, I had visited Amsterdam, wiling away hours in the Van Gogh Museum and drinking real hot chocolate in coffee houses. There were additional trips to England, Ireland and Sweden.

Each time, each place, I could feel my hear beating as I alighted from the planes. Always nervous, always happy, I would hold my guide books so tightly.  Then a week or two weeks later I would return to JFK or Logan International.  I'd taxi to my apartment, linger in my kitchen and my shower. I'd slip into my bed, drift off to sleep, happy to be home.
River Girls Crushed Blue Lilac Soap

That always wanting to go far--to see and learn, to do something new and adventurous is what perhaps makes us so uniquely American. It's not just the wanting, it is the actual faith in attempting and the utter gall to believe that we should. 

Happy Birthday America. In all things, let us keeping wanting to explore, to learn, to grow, and let us always have the audacity to believe such is possible.

Good night,
Wanda

1 comment:

Vicki said...

Now that's the spirit! Go for it, even when the 'buzzing' around you refuses to agree with your heart's desire...life is nothing more than a series of chapters that we have control in writing. Love this entry, very inspirational!

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