Let Each Day Be a Festival of Joy!

Many times in the past few weeks I have had thoughts swirling in my mind of things I wanted to write about. We had our annual golf outing, I went up north and wanted to convey my thoughts about great lakes shipwrecks, several recipes I wanted to share…. today I decided to ground my thoughts and share one of my most recent days!

Two days ago was my youngest daughter’s 21st birthday. Wow where did all those years go? She wanted to simply share the day and evening with my husband and I. So we celebrated her birthday in Detroit.

Detroit can be a scary place if you read the news. There is a flip side though and many enjoyable and yes, safe things to do there. We started out in the early afternoon by visiting Greektown. As you can imagine this is where you can experience authentic Greek cuisine and a little taste of their culture. We ate at a little restaurant called The Golden Fleece. It has been in business there for 45 years. We first tried the saganaki which is a flaming cheese bread. They bring the cheese in a pan to your table with some type of alcohol poured on it and they put a match to it. It flames up and everyone yells “opa”. The cheese was delicious spread on bread. We then ate gyros, lamb meat wrapped in a pita with onions and tomatoes in a cucumber sauce. It was a very enjoyable experience.

We then explored some of the shops along the street and ended up at the people mover station. The people mover is an automated system that is high above the ground on rails that transports you to different stations throughout the city.  It is very cheap entertainment! Just 75 cents will purchase a token that you can ride to your desired destination. I have never ridden on the people mover and I thoroughly enjoyed the sights of Detroit that I had never seen.

We then went on to the Detroit Tigers Game. They play in a beautiful stadium called Comercia Park. It was a lovely evening. The weather has been so hot but there was a gentle breeze and it just made the evening perfect. They also won the game which made it even better!

I thought about what a nice time we had together just celebrating a special moment in this life. We always look forward to special times but as I reflected on memories I also realized the importance of celebrating everyday no matter what kind of day it is because we have no promise of tomorrow. One of my other daughter’s dear friends just suffered a brain aneurysm unexpectedly and died during the surgery that was meant to save her life.  So young and so incredibly sad. I told my daughter to focus on the wonderful legacy her friend had left her. She was happy every single day. That is something worth cherishing and celebrating to all those who loved her.  We have breath and strength because God allows us to have it. Let’s celebrate and make the most of each and every challenging day He has allotted us!