Hello to you today. How are you? I’m feeling a bit rough after last night. I had a wonderful visit with my family here to celebrate the 4th and then Link and I came home…..ugh! For several hours we endured the sounds of fireworks all around us. They don’t seem to have any rules here about where and for how long you can detonate them. It sounded like a war zone to me. I could feel the explosions in my heart center. It sounded like this to me:
https://youtu.be/74D365CUr9s – one gunshot for every life lost in a mass shooting
We had yet another mass shooting in America, in Illinois……people celebrating at a 4th of July parade used for target practice:
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/7/4/23194354/highland-park-fourth-july-parade-gunfire?_amp=true
A lot of people, and I used to be one of those people, enjoy the experience of fireworks. It’s after having a dog and seeing what the experience did to them…. which lead to an expanded empathy and consciousness of what the experience does to all those not human, I stopped wanting the experience. Last night I couldn’t get away from it. With the decibel range of many of the things people were setting off, not much could block it. Some shook the house. People sharing with each other what they think freedom looks and sounds like at the expense of those who aren’t on the same page. Fireworks are dangerous, loud, harm wildlife, disturb the animals we live with and harm the environment – pollute the air we breathe. My “freedom” and that of many living around me collided last night. The world I grew up in and the one I am living in now are drastically different. There weren’t mass shootings on city streets, public events and schools. I didn’t know that the fireworks I enjoyed as a kid sounded like rapid gunfire you hear in a war zone.
https://youtu.be/wcnQJd_XRQQ – We haven’t got the country we had when I was raised – 100 year old veteran worried about America
One person got me through last night, representing very well the God I love. They kept me from doing what I wanted to do – go out to people and yell. I was in dark places last night:
https://youtu.be/sNlZEG6s8jo – Stay with me Lord – Jonathan Roumie
Deuteronomy 20:4New International Version
4 For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you(A) to fight(B) for you against your enemies to give you victory.(C)”
To be 
I agree with everything here. The poor animals! We did sparklers but then ran back inside because the booming makes my sensitive teenage daughter very scared. Given all the gun violence it really felt extra scary this year.
Thank you for sharing here and saying hello Bridgette! Some of the stuff going off here really sounded like stuff you might hear in a war zone. From what they are saying more and more people want this. I can only hope state and city governments will get a handle on things.