July–The Day After

It is all about the Day After for me. The Day of I Slept In (due to festivities in Munising the night before), I processed a few photos and headed to work on July 4rth! That’s right I had my usual 3-11pm shift. I left work to a trail of headlights leaving Marquette after the big boomers. No fireworks for me. So, before work on Monday I headed downtown. It was amazing. There was hardly a sign that the night before this town was overloaded with people. We recover well here in the North!

This is the barge next to the old pocket ore dock in Marquette’s Lower Harbor. Mattsson Lower Harbor Park is where people gather to watch Marquette’s Fireworks. It is where I fell in Love with Mike Hainstock in 2004. We have chosen July 4rth as our anniversary and it was sad not to be at his side on Sunday Night.

But my Magic Man was sitting on a bench in the backyard as I pulled up from work around 11:20 Sunday night. He had gone down to take photos, a little late, and he was a little wet from the scattered rain showers. But there he was. Home.

Life is work. And love can be, too. A balancing act of what you gotta get done and what you want to get done. Like working 3-11pm, 4-5 nights a week. It’s not what you WANT. You want to be gardening in the evenings in this magical place called home. But the balancing act is bringing in a paycheck and then getting the loving and gardening in when possible.

The man in the photo (below) was taking care of sand barrels on the shore. Cinching them up with a rope so they did not tumble. I think they were part of safety precautions for the fireworks. He said good morning. He was happy.

It’s all in how you view things! You can be happy wherever you are. There are blue skies all around you. It can be grand. Like a view from a new condo with stylin’ bright red chairs. Grand! A shout of Look UP Here!

Or it can be a bit more humble. Yet full of bright beautiful color and JOY! With tall skies of hope and a whisper of yellow curtains fluttering in the wind.

Whatever your view of the Day Afer is, I hope it is YOUR view. Not someone else’s vision of what you should be, should do, should think. This weekend I got to see myself in various views. In various ways. I was blessed to see so many hearts beating in individuals. They came from a place each called HOME.