TYG

TYG. Thank you God. On this eve of the Fourth of July, there's a lot to be thankful for. A cozy home. Food in the pantry. Friends. Family. Cuddly pets. The chance to have one's voice heard. I'm even thankful for extra telephone directories! Why? It's because they're perfect for drying flowers! You don't have to purchase expensive racks. Starting about ten pages from the back of the book, just arrange a few flowers or fall leaves--not touching each other--then close about twenty pages over them and arrange a few more, every twenty pages or so, sandwiching them from back to front. Then, hide them under your couch, or at the bottom of a stack of books, and forget them for a month or two. Even ten months later, you'll find them perfectly preserved! Last fall I gathered crimson climbers, golden birch, lemon-yellow ash and incredible bronze and wine-colored oak leaves. Just yesterday (yes, July) I pulled out my telephone books to check them. Yep, they look great. Perfect for that fall arrangement I'll be hankering to create by the end of summer. Hey, perhaps Melvin's girl friend will be a crafter! Like those culinary mysteries with recipes, I could add a few crafting instructions in my John Victor series? Suddenly, I'm in the mood to work on the book.
But, in the meantime, something else I'm thankful for? It's those 50+ founding fathers who put their lives on the line when they signed the declaration of independence. They wrote, "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor." Some of them were tortured and killed. Others lost their homes. Others lost their children. I'll be thinking of them when I give my keynote address this Fourth of July in Rutland. I hope a lot more of us in the US do, too.