My 4th Of July Spectacular

It wasn’t until July 1 that it dawned on me that the 4th was only days away and I had no specific plans for the holiday.

That never happens to me.

As a rule I am at once spontaneous and a planner. The planner version is usually in overdrive when it comes to holiday weekends. But this has been a very different year in the life and times of me so it would stand to reason that the 4th would be the same.

It hadn’t at all felt strange to have no big plans for the weekend until I realized that it was a holiday. Then it felt weird.

Just a year ago I would have known the holiday was close at hand. I would have been one of the first who would know whether the official bank holiday was Friday or Monday so I could plan accordingly. In fact it would have been written on my calendar months ahead.

The reason? The 4th meant more to me than the birthday of our nation’s independence, the “real” start to the summer and a display of fireworks. It was an extra day off. One that did not count as personal vacation time. That had to be taken full advantage of. That meant a definite change of location.

The stresses of Corporate America are rarely assuaged by days off alone. There needs to be a complete geographic switch in which to regain the sense of balance that world can shake from you and perhaps to look at it all from a fresh perspective.

But I am in my life after Corporate America phase so I forgot.

As it turns out, I did wind up changing geography. Thanks to the generosity of my good friends Nancy Moon and her husband Steve Gordon, I got to escape to their beautiful home on the beach in Fairfield, Connecticut. And I was reminded that with or without corporate craziness, a change of location, a day at the beach and the mesmerizing spectacle of a great display of fireworks is still an important part of keeping life in perspective.

(Fireworks photo is courtesy of Nancy Moon, who in addition to being one of the best PR people out there, is a great photographer.)