OYM Day 71: A Folding Chair Built For 2

Last night, I pulled out the 2 seater camping chair from the garage and dragged it down to the end of the driveway. It was just after 8pm and my daughter was still awake, dressed in her Wonder Woman Halloween costume, pointing at the sky. “WOWWW,” she would say, as the red, purple, and gold sparks faded into nothing. “More? More? Please?”

Neighbors in every 3rd house of our sleepy, stucco subdivision were in the street, crouched down over little explosives with names like “dragon tears”, “red, white, & boom”, and my favorite, “golden showers.”

With less people getting together for parties and less places holding events with fireworks, it seemed families decided to take matters into their own soon-to-be mangled hands this 4th of July. There were children shouting with excitement, but even louder, adults giggling like children and saying “my turn”, because doesn’t everyone want to feel the anticipation of running from a sputtering, lit wick?

My daughter stretched out in the chair and lay her head in my lap. A gunpowder haze hung low in the sky and the desert heat weighed down upon us like an invisible blanket . My husband and the dog were right behind us, enjoying the show, the pup seemingly unfazed by the eruptions of color and bass in the concrete. And I thought… remember this. Put it in your heart, on an 8x10, and look at it before you go to sleep some nights. Remember how complete you felt. Not needing or worrying or even speaking. Just hanging onto each second, waiting for the next explosion of color, for her little hand to grip mine, for her little sleepy voice to plead “more, mommy.”