The magic of summer

There are many things that represent summer to me: baseball games, the warmth of the sun, flip flops, flowers, the smell of chlorine, fireworks, etc... But the main thing for me, the thing I always wait impatiently for, has finally made its blazing appearance: the fireflies.

The first firefly I saw this season was a single one, last weekend at the summer festival. But tonight while I was driving home I saw them everywhere.

Fireflies immediately transport me back to my childhood. I remember catching them with my friends then putting them in mason jars with holes punched in the lid. I always felt kind of guilty about trapping them, so I tried to create a "natural environment" for them (much less natural than their actual natural environment) - I'd put in a stick, a few leaves, maybe even a couple drops of water in case they got thirsty. But inevitably when I woke up the morning, the poor fireflies had died in the night. I stopped putting them in jars because of that, but I still tried to catch them just for fun. There was something so thrilling and exciting about catching them. They were like little flying fireballs! It felt like they were part of a fairy world. But that didn't change the fact that they were, in actuality, bugs. Normally I am not one to touch bugs but I made an exception for fireflies. Still, I'm not going to lie - it gave me the heebie jeebies to feel them crawling around on my palm and I'd let them go pretty quickly. When they were back in the air, the magic returned to them.

All those memories come back to me every year when I see the fireflies. They add so much to the magic of summer. Welcome back old friends!