sine qua non

I went to see the Charlotte Symphony and fireworks in the park the other day.  It’s probably my favorite event of the year.  There’s just something about being in a park on a serene Summer evening, listening to the Symphony playing, watching the lightning bugs float around children playing with sparklers or glow sticks…  It’s a magical atmosphere.  There was an estimated 10,000-12,000 people in that little park last night.  I just sat there, as the darkness rolled in and let it soak in…the energy of all of those people, while looking up at the tall trees above me.

Then the fireworks came, and they were spectacular.  I loved listening to the children, and indeed even the adults, oohing and aahing over them.  There were heart shaped ones, smiley faced ones, and some star ones.  The star ones had these two little girls behind me very excited.  “It’s a star!  It’s a star!”  They would cry out with delight over and over.  Then one proclaimed happily “Yes, it’s Jesus’s star!”  There were also the fireworks that boom so loud and sharp you can feel it throuhout your body (love those), and the kind that seem to swim around the sky while making a shrill noise (love those too), as well as the more traditional colored bursts (you guessed it…I love those also).  The finale filled the sky with colored lights and booms of all kinds as the crowd sent up various sounds of their appreciation.  There’s just something in me that loves fireworks…  So I thought that I would post this video, even though I posted it last year.  It’s worth a reblog.

Fireworks in reverse to the sound of Festival by Sigur Rós, which I actually find very moving for some reason.

Happy Fourth, my fellow Americans!