#BlogFlash2012

I’m delighted to be hosting #BlogFlash2012 – 30 Days, 30 Prompts 30 Posts.

If you’d like to jump on board, it’s not too late! 

Don’t forget to leave your “Day Nineteen – Fireworks” post link in the comments below so I can stop by!

#BlogFlash2012: Day Nineteen – Fireworks

Fireworks

In late-September 2001, Dave and I flew to Florence to visit our daughter Natalie. She was there for a semester abroad. She’d left home just a few days before the attacks and, with strict no-fly dictates, had been left stranded and terrified in a strange city far from home. When we arrived, the streets were lined with armed militia and signs in shop windows displayed the U.S. colors and declared support.

One night, after leaving the opera, as we walked back to our hotel, fireworks shot up over the Arno. For twenty minutes, we stood on the Ponte Vecchio, watching the gorgeously artful show. It was not a feast day, and no one we asked, that night or the next day, could tell us why the fireworks had gone off. For three U.S. travelers, dazed and grief-stricken by the horrific events of 9/11, the beauty and wonder of those unexpected fireworks offered a welcome and deeply needed sense of connection.

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