“There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden, or even your bathtub.”
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Last night I experienced that sense of peace I get when the world is beautiful, children laugh, and frenzied shells filled with gunpowder and chemicals explode and then dance upon the sky in a profusion of light, color and sound. There’s the initial thudding bomb as the shell’s fuse is lit and then the charge is lit and it bursts into the sky. It is followed by hissings, snapping, crackling and popping as smaller charges are lit and fiery bits gyrate wildly. The crowd’s silence and the oohs and ahs swell as greater and greater images appear overhead,—stars, hearts, flowers, and in Seattle dancing clams. In the midst of all that movement, I was at rest, content in knowing our country made it to another birthday. My renewed optimism may be short-lived, but for now I am hopeful.