Coming Soon(ish) to An Outdoor Cinema Near You (Maybe)

If there is one thing I'm looking forward to right now, it's summer break and everything that comes along with it. Long, lazy days spent on the couch writing stories, going out and dancing around in every rainstorm that isn't accompanied by too much thunder and lightning, drinking homemade lemonade and Kool-Aid like they're going out of style, going swimming at least a few times, eating Blue Bunny ice cream novelties for dessert three nights a week, not having to worry about homework--heck, yeah. Long story short, summer life is the best life (even though I am not a big fan of anything hotter than about eighty degrees. Anything hotter than that, and everything involving my being outside is essentially cancelled). The only time of year I like more than summer break is probably winter break, but that's because snow is normally my favorite weather (ONLY DURING THE RIGHT SEASON) and Christmas is my favorite time of year. The main determining factor for why I love both summer and winter break is, of course, probably fairly obvious. There isn't homework. (I dread the day when summer no longer equates to four months of taking things slower than usual, thanks to only having a part-time florist job to worry about.)

 

As great as summertime is overall, there is one thing I love more than any other aspect of the season. That one thing is the firefly. Every night from about June until August, there's a little shower of what I call "earth stars" that buzz lazily around my yard and neighborhood, filling the air with cheerful little glows everywhere you look. My two youngest siblings (they'll be eleven and eight this summer) love going out on cooler evenings and carefully catching the little bugs out of the air to study for a few minutes. There's nothing more exciting to the littlies than managing to carefully snag a flying insect right out of the air and letting it fly away again a moment later. Even though I'm going on twenty-one, I'll freely admit I still find a sense of wonder and euphoria from successfully nabbing one as well.

 

My whole life, fireflies have always been a given. I've lived in two regions of Missouri, one area of Illinois, and two places in Iowa. The landscapes of my childhood and early adulthood homes have varied from suburbia, to inner-city St. Louis, to less than a mile from cows and cornfields, but one constant has always been fireflies. (Unless, of course, I'm remembering fireflies in St. Louis when there weren't any; I might have to ask my mom.) My point is that it came to me as a total shock and surprise to learn that many, perhaps even most, parts of the United States don't have fireflies. People know they exist, of course, but many haven't ever seen them in person. Every summer, I end up taking videos of fireflies to show to my friends who don't have fireflies where they live. What has always been a staple of summer (and quite honestly, one of the best staples) for me is something as unknown to others as snow is to many southern parts of the US.

So, personally, I'm eagerly looking forward to the return of the "earth stars" here in a few months (assuming it actually warms up at some point). But if you live in an area where fireflies are unheard of, here's a lovely video I found (filmed in Iowa, as it turns out) that'll give you at least some idea of how beautiful these insects really are:

This post's challenge is one you can put on hold until warmer times arrive. Try to find a beautiful insect or bug of any variety, whether a butterfly, spider, firefly, or housefly (I won't judge). These tiny creatures can be annoying in some cases (I swear I'm not arachnophobic, but I'll still scream when I see a spider in my house when I'm not expecting it), but they're beautiful all the same. Keep dreaming of summer, fellow observers, and I'll see you again soon.