Raising Nats Fans: Beautiful (Five Minute Friday)

It's Friday - time to sit down, set the timer, and let your thoughts ramble on the screen for 5 lovely uninterrupted minutes. Hop on over to Lisa-Jo's and join in the fun, won't you?

Full details on how it works are here.

This week's word:

BEAUTIFUL

Independence Day in America is beautiful. Especially in Washington, DC. It's my favorite time of year to live here. I spent yesterday in the company of good friends, and wonderful strangers, celebrating freedom and our nation's 237th birthday.

The city was all dressed up and folks were sporting the red, white and blue all over. The most amazing moment of my day was in the National Cathedral. Went for the Independence Day organ concert. 10,647 pipes of awesomeness in there. WHOA.

And at the beginning, we all stood. The whole packed out gropu of us - balcony and all. And we sang the National Anthem as one. Voices raised in celebration and reflection. FOr those who have gone before us, and those who serve us now - far away from home so we can stand and sing together.

The last word finished, and the note hung in the air ... a tribute to soldiers and our founding fathers and to all our citizens who proudly claim America as home. And THAT was the most beautiful moment of the day.

I went on to see the Capitol Fourth celebration on the west lawn - so hot (literally) and so cool (figuratively). Singing with hundreds of thousands of strangers - and yet even in that crowd, turns out a friend was sittingw ith his family only 30 feet away. The wonders of Facebook allowed us to see that we'd posted pictures of the same beautiful view. And then I got this text: "Where are you? Our picture is the same!" I looked around, and they were about 6 blankets over. "Turn to your right" I replied.

Friends, and strangers, sharing one city, one nation, and one beautiful view on one very special day.

Stop.

**I'll add a few pictures of my celebration journey below.