Lightning Bugs

Tiny little flickers of Magic.

I get giddy whenever I see the first lightning bug of the season. If I was more diligent at keeping calendars or journals, I’d mark it. Along side the ripening of my favored wild raspberries, lightning bugs mark the natural farewell of “spring”’ and spectacular beginning to “summer”.

For weeks I’m dazzled by their dance, and how they seem to rise like a sparkling fog at dusk. The first sightings are just a few dazzling dots against the foliage. They quickly multiply by the day, little sparkles in the trees, grasses, and the sky. They twinkle with the stars in the treetops. Every night before bed, I’m mesmerized watching out my bedroom window.

For the last several years I’ve been concerned with the numbers, just like every one else, wondering how much damage humans have done to the habitats they lived in. Yet seeing them light up the landscape this year, I know they have prevailed. Nature has prevailed.

We have been destructive to Nature, and there seems to be no signs of slowing or stopping. We’ve damaged delicate ecosystems, disrupted the life cycles of all kinds of creatures, especially the insects. Still they persist, constantly seeking refuge from the human race. They find it, too, in the pockets we’ve deemed inhabitable, or simply abandoned.

The mosquitoes have also returned, a reminder with the gifts of rain, raspberries, and mystical bugs comes the negative. Despite human destruction and mass insect control campaigns, the little blood suckers come in droves to eat me alive.

Mosquitoes actually scare me a little, as they carry various diseases that can kill humans. I know they’ll be consumed by birds, praying mantis, and toads. The ecosystem is healthy in our woods. Yet tiny and vulnerable as they are, they pose a huge threat to me and the entire human race. They can do a LOT of harm to our species without us noticing. They remind us Nature has Her own defense mechanisms.

Gazing out my bedroom window as I watch the nighttime parade of beautiful blinking bugs, I’m safe from the killer bugs and other assorted dangers lurking in the twilight. I can’t help but wonder if the lightning bugs are flashing us a message…

Nature is prevailing.

Sunset overlooking Sunflower Hill. The tall stalks are skeletons of last year’s sunflowers, with a small sunflower starting to regrow. Two lightning bugs are in the far right just under the horizon.