Midsummer's Night

It is almost dark.  The last of the color is fading from the trees and grass, and soon the whole scene will go gray and then black.  But just as dusk pulls the shade on another day, my yard is alive with the tiny golden light of the fireflies.  Dozens of lights dance from the grass to the trees and into the deep woods beyond the house.  I think  for a moment about grabbing a jar and running barefoot into the dewy grass to catch the tiny lights and keep them in the jar with holes punched in the metal lid as I did when I was a child.  One summer when my son was quite young and was very ill, I caught  a whole jar of fireflies and then turned them lose in his room.  In his illness that night, the tiny jeweled lights flying across his walls and floating over his bed eased his pain and helped him to sleep.  Tonight I just enjoy the show and wonder where these delightful insects recharge during the day.  They have no idea how many children they have thrilled with their magic lantern dances in the night.  Or how many adults still drift back to childhood just watching the fireflies of midsummer dance.