Steel Drums and Fireworks!

Dear Diary,

I have a friend whose weekend home is an old farm not far from my house.  Every year he sponsors a huge party, 100+ people, for the 4th of July.  He goes all out with a steel drum band playing during the dinner on the lawn, antique fire truck rides for the kids, and then the largest private fireworks display I've ever seen.  I really enjoyed the evening and it felt good to have to put on a sweatshirt rather than sweating in the heat and humidity.

His wife is a poet and they built a small retreat cottage on the property for her to write in and he built a recreation of Thoreau's cabin for himself.  We share a love the Sage of Concord.  I will be heading to Concord next week and for a four day retreat at St. Benedict's Abbey in Stillwater, Massachusetts.  I am looking forward to my first visit to Concord since discovering that Louisa May Alcott and I are cousins.  We share a common great grandfather.

I try to go on a retreat every year and this is my first stay at St. Benedict's.  Stillwater is a lovely, rural town not far from where I grew up in Central Massachusetts.  Then I will be off to Connecticut to visit the home of another ancestor, stop at Old Mystic Seaport and then a much anticipated Blipmeet but I am looking ahead.  This week a dear friend will be visiting from Minnesota and we have lots of things planned.  Good to look ahead, anticipation is a great thing, but better to live in the wonderful present moment I think!