Independence Day...

I suppose "Independence Day" could mean a lot of things, after all "independence" is a pretty big word.

For us, it means two things, mostly.

First of all the overwhelming gratitude we feel to live in a country in which we can express our views, opinions, and beliefs without fear.

As you know...I "express" myself quite a bit. LOL!!

It should never be taken for granted that we have the right to these freedoms when so many in the world do not.

Lately, we have been hitting the "detour trail" around here pretty hard. Two or three things a day because we have had to make up for lost time. We got a very late start this year and we have to make up time if we are going to check them all off!  The list has grown to nearly 40 things :)

We are having a great time playing very hard and enjoying every moment we get together as a family and with our friends (who are our family).

There are no guarantees in life.

We don't know that we are going to be a family of four next summer and we press very hard to soak in every single minute we are getting.

SO...in the past two weeks, we have checked off a crazy amount of things to do for this summer and it has been awesome! We have had a BLAST!

I still worry about scans in July...I still worry about this pre-leukemia test that is coming in soon...but I can't control them and I refuse to allow cancer to steal one minute away from us just because it is looming.

That's how cANCER wins.

So we are, in effect, declaring our independence from cancer by fighting with fun and memories it can never take away.

Again, I wish it hadn't taken cancer for me to realize this. I wish I had lived the prior years of my life this way.

Carpe diem!!!

Please!

Like the Nike commercial says, "Just Do It"!

It doesn't even take money to detour...you can go to the park for free...you can take a walk along a beautiful path for free...you can play a board game, read books, snuggle, put your tent up in your backyard and go camping (which is what we did last night)...

No one knows what life is going to bring.  The only thing I can expect is the unexpected.

But I have learned to detour and find smiles and laughter and memories every single day in a million small ways.

SO...my Independence Day Challenge is this (should you choose to accept it)  (Oh..and this message will NOT self destruct, yup, just dated myself)

...one detour. That's all...ONE detour....

Maybe you go get some ice cream, try roller skating, go bowling, play a game of baseball in the yard, go to the pool, call someone you love very much and tell them...whatever it is...

One detour!

It is very freeing!!!

Seriously!!

Now get out there and detour!

TAKE THAT cANCER (or whatever your personal take that deal is)

And feel free to post your detour in the comments so others can see what you did...it's fun to get new ideas and you might inspire someone else to try your detour!

Happy Independence Day Week!!