Lighting Up Her Life

She found them at dusk, with a little help from some cousins. They started to dot the green grass and the corn field like starts in the sky. She was in awe, chasing their glows through the grass, attempting to master the skill of the catch. 


An unexpected, unplanned, awesome moment in her life. She has read about lightning bugs, listened stories of them, but had never seen one since becoming aware of their magic. Until that night. 


She collected them, she watched each one soothingly illuminate, and cared for them tenderly, even let them sleep in her bed. Who knows how her mind wondered during their time together that night. Until morning when she woke up and forgot about them and had to be reminded about her bugs. Deep in her covers their peanut butter jar of a home was found and they were released back to "their friends", a little slow but still moving (thank goodness). 

And that is the story of her first lightning but catch, a story I couldn't wait to unfold in her life as I too found the magic in lightning bugs as a child one Indiana summer.