Is there anything more delicious than the final days of summer? The warmth lasting into the evening as you drink up the sun's final rays, its glow lingering on your skin; the song of the cicadas as the day begins to cool into evening; the soft feeling of sleepiness coming over you as you relax after an active day outdoors in the garden, on the water, or by the pool. If only those damn bugs would quit biting.
But, there is one bug that doesn't harass. Universally drawing kids to it -like its insect cousin the moth to the flame- it is a bug that symbolizes childhood in the summertime to me. Staying up late to catch lightning bugs is a memory so deeply ingrained in me that it is one I seek to recreate annually with my own brats.
We're not quite there yet but, as we near summer's end and Ragnarok back-to-school (the date of which has become so early in recent years that it's frankly vulgar), I find myself dreading the cold that awaits us on the other side of the year. In those dark, cold months, I hope that you will allow your minds to return to Summer, and be illuminated by her little fairies of light. With a poem that's far shorter than my wordy write-up, Robert Frost reminds readers of the beauty in the simple, tiny things that we often overlook.
FIREFLIES IN THE GARDEN
