Lightning in a jar...

As I sit on my back porch, I relax after a day in a cooped up office. Pushing papers around and trying to avoid daily disaster.

I breathe in the warm summer air, still thick with humidity. I listen to the cicadas start their chorus in the surrounding bushes. As my eyes adjust to the impending dark, I focus on the far bamboo trees. There I see them. Green twinkling. Like Christmas tree lights on the blink. I still get excited like I did when I was a child. I sit and smile and think back to easier days.

My family would visit my grandparent's home during the summer. We would do the regular touristy things that one does when visiting. The sights I saw and things I experienced were great. But none matched the fireflies. I didn't have any where I lived, so these things were just amazing to me.

After a big meal, of what I can't remember, topped off by fresh strawberries, sugar, and cream my brother and I would rush to take our baths. Once scrubbed clean and in our pajamas, we were allowed to go hunt for fireflies.

We would race out the back door with our mayonnaise jars in our little hands. Holes would be punched in the lids so our lightning bugs could breathe. We would wait for the first green flicker and dash for it. My brother would swat them out of the sky and I would lift my hand up to them. The fireflies would land on my fingers and I would put them in my ever-ready jar for safe keeping.

After our fire fly haul, we were brought inside for bed. I would carefully place the jar next to my bed. There I would fall asleep with the bugs twinkling next to my head.

In the morning I would wake up and find the jar empty. I always asked my grandmother where they went and she would always tell me, "They're magic. You'll need to catch more."

For years I thought lightning bugs were magic. While I know now they are not, I still like to believe that they are.

So, as I sit on my back porch, I think back on a magical time when one can believe in almost anything. Including bugs that light up a yard like a green Christmas tree.