Rather than post yesterday, we chose to celebrate the Fourth of July with disc golf in the morning, then some quiet time to do crossword puzzles and cryptic quotes from The Epoch Times in the afternoon, followed by time to explore Wolf Creek looking for antique bottles, hot dogs on the grill with chips, baked beans, and watermelon for dinner, and then fireworks downtown with a small encore in our backyard. The only bummer was our failure to defrost the key lime pie cheesecake for dessert. But no one complained tonight!
So, in belated celebration of Independence Day, let me share one of the poems I found yesterday on a ThoughtCo.com post from 2019, rich with deepening places from the likes of poets like Whitman, Emerson, and Longfellow, not to mention other writers who continue to inspire patriots today with their unique and profound visions of America. Even in these trying times, I echo Longfellow’s voice. Sail on, America! Sail on! May you sail under the guidance of your true Master, and may the winds of Heaven set you back on the course the Founding Fathers envisioned 246 years ago!
O Ship of State by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! Sail on, O Union, strong and great! Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate! We know what Master laid thy keel, What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, What anvils rang, what hammers beat, In what a forge and what a heat Were shaped the anchors of thy hope! Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 'Tis of the wave and not the rock; 'Tis but the flapping of the sail, And not a rent made by the gale! In spite of rock and tempest's roar, In spite of false lights on the shore, Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea! Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee. Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, Are all with thee, -are all with thee!
the deepening ground 