Lightning Bugs

I stood, mesmerized, in the door leading to our back yard as I waited for the dog to finish her nightly duties and return to the house for bed. My eyes were drawn to the glow of lightning bugs seemingly floating among the trees in our yard; my mind transported back to the hot summer nights of my youth.

It's amazing how something as simple as seeing lightning bugs in the yard can stir up so many wonderful memories. Throughout the yard their flashing glow reminding me of those days when we ran through the yard, or around the campground, catching the fireflies to put them into a jar for a while just to watch them light up.

Sadie was seemingly oblivious to their flashing. They have no special significance to her. But for me, they were special.

Dusk was always a special time in the summer. Sure, it brought a small, but welcome, relief from the summer's oppressive heat; but it also brought opportunities for totally different games and fun than those we played during the day.

Dusk brought out the lightning bugs.

I remember our unofficial contests while camping at Meramec State Park with the Kleins; seeing who could catch the most lightning bugs. The contests weren't completely fair, so the older kids always won. It didn't seem to matter at the time, though, because the joy was in catching lightning bugs; not in winning.

We didn't know, nor would we have cared, that the lightning bugs' flashing was part of their elaborate mating ritual. To us, they were flashing their lights as a means for us to locate them in the waning light. A means of guiding us to them; our goal to gently catch them in cupped hands and put them into the jar where we could watch their flashing lights.

Eventually, the jar would be opened and the bugs released again; their cluster of flashing lights slowly spreading as they returned to their nightly task.

So as I stood in the doorway waiting for Sadie I was surprised by the desire to grab a jar and run through the yard again - not so much to be catching lightning bugs as to be reliving memories.