A Day for Women

Today is International Women's Day. How appropriate was it that I found myself, with the honor of, sharing lunch with three Italian women. Even though it was her own birthday today, Maria, our host, had set us a table filled with meats, cheeses, bowls of homemade pasta, and an apricot tart for dessert. 

I loved listening to these three women talk to each other in their own native tongue. Each one a different age, different family history, different life experiences and each one uniquely beautiful in their own way. 

"There is in every true woman's heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity."

WASHINGTON IRVING

(photos courtesy of: weheartit.com)

A Declaration of Independence (4th of July)

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." 

Independence Day, (known as the Fourth of July), is a national day in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. 

*Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the only signers of the Declaration of Independence later to serve as Presidents of the United States, died on the same day: July 4, 1826, which was the 50th anniversary of the Declaration.

Dedicated to those in our Armed Forces 

(Photos courtesy of: google)