I stood alone on my porch on the 4th of July, listening to the boom, crackle, pop of the firework displays surrounding my house in a sort of trapezoid.
The sound was as close as bacon sizzling on the frying pan of my stove. A boom would come from the show behind my house. Then, the one to the left. Then, the two across from me.
I strained to catch a glimpse of the shower of sparks, shifting from one area of the porch to another.
All I could see was the occasional flash through the trees.
A few months earlier…
It was the 250th anniversary of my country. I started planning how to celebrate around the time my debut novel released in May.
The novel is about four people with extremely different personalities, trapped in a car together. They’re on a classic American road trip, traveling Route 66 and discovering themselves along the way. (You can grab it on Amazon here.)
When we set the release schedule, I had no clue that such a huge anniversary fell on the same year.
But it was really special that it did. After celebrating the book release with delicious cookies, I turned my attention to the 4th of July.
My “perfect” plan…
When I thought about it, celebrating the 4th of July meant two things to me:
- Fireworks
- Watermelon rice crispie treats
To get my plan in motion, I texted some friends about watching fireworks together and obsessed about watermelon rice crispie treats.
(Seriously. I obsessively talked about and showed/texted pictures of them to everyone. They’re epic.)
There was only one tiny lil’ problem with my plan….it was supposed to rain on the 4th of July where I live.
I spent A LONG TIME (I think literal hours) researching options. We could watch fireworks on the third or the fifth…or risk the rain.
After some silly group chat debating, we settled on a show scheduled for the third, with a backup day “in case of rain.” It was a 20-minute drive north, and I’d spent the day leading up to it an hour south. But I wanted to go!
So my husband drove us partway there, only to get a call from our friends saying nasty weather had rolled in.
Instead of waiting for the rain date, the show people decided to set off 25 minutes worth of firework show at once.
We didn’t see a single one.
Disappointment leads to…
I spent the 4th standing barefoot on my front porch in the sticky humidity left by the rain, flirting with disappointment.
As humans, we get to choose how we react to our circumstances and feelings. The most popular reactions to disappointment are a.) dissatisfaction or b.) turning lemons into lemonade.
Imagine it this way: your popsicle melts in the hot sun after only a few licks. You’re sad, but you choose to turn lemons into lemonade by using the popsicle stick for an art project.
Dissatisfaction is like licking the popsicle stick. The purple stain looks flavorful, but all you’ll get is a splinter to the tongue.
Did you celebrate the 4th of July this year? What do you think about disappointment as a popsicle stick? Leave a comment with your thoughts, I’d love to hear them.
