Before we start, no, I’m not obsessed with fireflies. Well, maybe. (I did make an alien race of firefly bugs for my Jason and the Astronauts story but that’s not proof.)
Last evening as of writing this, the kids got to bed late because they were engaging in the classic summer behavior of catching fireflies. Or watching and chasing them, at least. The six year old was very distressed she had to come in before she’d successfully caught one. There are a lot of them in the backyard this year, for which I am glad.
When we first moved into this house, just a little over five years ago, the backyard hadn’t been tended in at least a year and was a little wild and woolly. We moved ourselves in before we moved our stuff in and didn’t have curtains for the windows in the bedroom, so my husband and I set up an air mattress in our new room that overlooked the backyard. And suddenly a magical scene played out before our eyes. In the evening gloaming beyond the window, the air was full of dancing spots of light. Dozens, if not hundreds, of fireflies blinking through the night. It was one of the most magical, tranquil sights I’d ever seen and I was transfixed.
I had to work at keeping fireflies in my backyard and make some compromises. What fireflies like isn’t what a typical suburban backyard in roughly the middle of a city normally has. They like tall grass, leaf litter to lay their eggs, and moisture. Funnily enough, many of their conditions are similar to what mosquitos like. *grumpy face* I’ve been able to encourage them by mowing less often, at least in the backyard, and we have a brush pile to provide shelter. I want a pine tree back there as the needle litter is supposed to be great brooding grounds for fireflies. But to me, trying to replicate that sight was worth a little careful tending.
These weren’t the first fireflies I’d ever seen. I grew up in the American South and Midwest and summers were replete with evenings watching and chasing and catching and admiring fireflies. But that night felt different and I’ve professed from then on that fireflies are as close to magic as we get in this world.1
In fact, I’ve noticed a trend with light in the darkness. It entrances us and turns ordinary moments and ordinary places into something different, mysterious, and ethereal. When I was in college I went on a Study Abroad that spent a week in Paris and on the first night I learned why it was called the City of Lights. During the day, it was a fascinating place, sure. It was also grimy, dirty, the streets were hygienic nightmares, and the river was disgusting. But then the sun went down, the lights came on, and it was everything the movies claimed. Gorgeous, stunning, a place where anything can happen. Or take Christmas lights in winter. Take a walk or a drive (depending on your conditions) on a dark winter night and compare the sight of a tree twisted ’round with glowing lights to the same tree in spring or fall. It’s just as skeletal and bare in the winter- more so, even- but with lights, it’s nigh mythical.
A candle flame in the darkness is mesmerizing to watch. A flashlight under the covers makes reading at night more exciting than just a lamp in the evening. Stars glowing through the dark night create an expanse of eternity more complete and more alive than an overcast sky or a dark cave filled with mere nothing.
It would be easy to expand this to be some sort of metaphor but I don’t want to. I want it to exist as it is. And to encourage you to turn out some lights, find some darkness, and watch the twinkle and mystery of glimmering lights in the black.
The above image of fireflies was created pretty quickly on my computer when I realized I wanted a picture but didn’t see any I could verify the free provenance of online that suited my needs. Textures on digital painting make quick painting easy. Maybe I’ll post on that sometime.
- There are other clear instances of magic in our world, I admit. 3d resin printing, especially when viewed in time lapse? Dark magic. It turns soup into hard objects. Sure maybe technically it’s the process of exposing specific goop to specific bands of light that hardens it in specific ways for specific times but also: DARK MAGIC. ↩︎
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