How the Stars Look Tonight

STARS AND STRIPES

The 4th of July is a day for picnics and backyard barbeques,

Parades on Main Street

People handing out miniature American flags.

We wear red, white, and blue

As we sit on quilts laid out like stripes at Freedom Park

Watching the fireworks booming and shining in the night sky,

We think about how the stars in the sky look

To our beloved  soldiers tonight.

Give a warm welcome to my special guest today, teacher and poet, Ann Magee. She lives in southern NJ. Ann has an identical twin sister and her husband has an identical twin brother!  She and her husband are celebrating 21 years of marriage. The Magee’s have three kids aged 10, 12, and 14 years old.

Ann says, “Substitute teaching is all I can manage right now, in addition to managing my children’s schedules and my own volunteer schedule–I teach Art Goes to School in our district, volunteer at the Middle School Library, and I’ve been the yearbook photographer and coordinator (ie I do everything) for our Elementary School for the past 10 years. Ann is an avid scrap-booker and cook.

Thank you, Ann for your beautiful words. God bless our troops and their families.

Chosen or Inherited-Freedom Isn’t Free

My son said ,” We don’t know how good we have it in the United States”, after he returned from his deployment in Iraq. Seeing other cultures and the struggles people have in their daily lives opened his eyes to what we sometimes take for granted in our daily lives.

Our freedoms are gifts to us paid for by the service and many times the blood of our soldiers. Read Regina Brett’s article about choosing or inheriting our citizenship. God bless our beautiful country and our service men and women. Happy 4h of July!

Freedom

Happy 4th of July! Today at church we had an appeal from Father Joseph, a missionary priest from Uganda. Father commented that he had read books and seen many movies about our country.  Through his eyes, as a first time visitor to the USA, he saw all of the beauty and abundances in our lives. Father Joseph said, “God has blessed your country.”

Thinking of all of our blessings, I teared up as we sang “America the Beautiful”.

O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties, Above the fruited plain!

O beautiful for heroes proved, In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!

. . . America! America!
God shed his grace on thee

We are blessed with many freedoms. Read Regina Brett’s column today. My thoughts are included. God bless America.

USO | Support Our Troops | United Service Organizations | 4th of July Message to Our Troops

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USO | Support Our Troops | United Service Organizations | 4th of July Message to Our Troops.

Bird Songs

The Tree Swallows glide and swoop across the path. A dozen Red-winged Blackbirds startle and fly up as a group and settle in a different spot in the meadow perching on cattails.  The high twitter of the Swallows intertwines with the loud reee of the Blackbirds.  The frogs offer the bass part to this symphony sounding like the plucking of thick rubber bands stretched across a shoebox.  The aroma of clover comes in waves as the wind ebbs and flows. Purple coneflowers and Black-eyed Susans dot the landscape. Frohring Meadows is part of the Geauga Park District.  The abandoned farm fields have been reseeded with native plants to create a tall grass prairie, a habitat that might have been found in parts of Ohio when the settlers roamed the territory. On this fourth of July, I think of our heritage. I think of all those who came before me, those devoted to God and country. I think of the sacrifices, both past and present, made by men and woman not afraid to give their lives for what they believe. Because of them, I can walk in a peaceful meadow listening to bird songs. God bless our troops and God bless America.