On Fireflies

One of the things I love about living here are watching the fireflies at night in the summer. I had never seen a Real Live Firefly until I was probably 13 or 14, and now my girls can see them all the time! They really are amazing little things. Tonight after Kate brushed her teeth, she ran to the window and cried, "Look, Mommy! Fireflies!" (They were out early tonight because of the sweltering humid heat that swamped us today. Tonight I am intentionally focusing on the little joys, like fireflies, about living here so that hopefully later I will not remember the little annoyances, like suffocating humidity.) Usually they come out in those few twilight minutes just before it gets dark, and I'll admit that more than once this summer I've called Kate out of bed to watch them with me. We stand at the darkened windows and give little whispered gasps every time we see a little flicker (or sometimes even when we don't, in Kate's case). Last week Travis's five cousins stayed with us. They don't see fireflies where they live, so when they came out, we were all watching, entranced. Then Travis said, "Let's go catch them!" and we all ran outside like seven little children (when most of us, in fact, were not little children at all) and giggled and ran and jumped, trying to catch those little critters that in all actuality aren't really that hard to catch. The next night, Travis came home from someplace, and he had caught a firefly! We got excited and told him to let it go in the house, and we turned off all the lights. Turns out fireflies aren't complete idiots after all. They know when they should actually light up like they do naturally outside and when to keep quiet and plan an escape. We sat in the dark for a while before finally giving up, and later we found the little friend sitting contentedly on the ceiling. (Travis sent him home later by releasing him from the balcony.) It's so much fun sometimes to spend a little time doing something completely ridiculous, like running around the backyard in your jammies, a grown adult, for all the neighbors to see. Or maybe it's just those little things in life that keep us happy (or at least sane!) I think forever after this it will never really be summer without a firefly.

PS - I wish I could also provide actual photos of our fireflies, but first of all, you all know about me and my AWESOME photography skills, and second of all, it would obviously take many tries and impeccable timing. And third, I'm too busy enjoying it all to be burdened with a bothersome camera.