Magic of Fireflies

 

I grew up seeing fireflies. When we moved to Washington state, I met people who have never seen them because fireflies don't live in this part of the country. I miss the magic they bring to a summer evening.

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“Alice’s breath stopped in her throat. The mountainside opposite was alive with light, a wall of glinting fairy lights, three-dimensional among the trees, winking and twinkling as they shifted, illuminating the shadows of the inky dark. … Alice couldn’t quite take in what she was seeing. The clouds parted and the fireflies glinted, mingled, traversed upward from the illuminated shadows of the trees, and their million luminous white bodies melded seamlessly with the starry night sky above, so that it seemed for that moment that the whole world was carpeted with tiny golden lights. It was such a ridiculous, unlikely, insanely beautiful sight that Alice found herself laughing out loud, both hands pressed to her face.” 

 

Fred says “You know what’s really wonderful about those fireflies? …. Sure, they live for just a few weeks. Not much at all in the grand scheme of things. But while they’re there, the beauty of them, well, it takes your breath away. … You get to see the world in a whole new way. And then you have that beautiful picture burned onto the inside of your head. To carry it wherever you go. And never forget it. …  some things are a gift, even if you don’t get to keep them…. Maybe just to know that something this beautiful exists is all we can really ask for.”   (The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes) 

image from pixabay