Magical Bits of Firelight

I took my dog, Tasha, for our nightly walk. It was a gorgeous night - warm but not muggy. Along the way, two of the little girls in my neighborhood were running through their yard, chasing fireflies and catching them in their hands.

It took me back to a night when I was about six years old. My cousins and I ran around for hours catching fireflies in the huge yard that stretched between our grandparents' homes. We placed them in an old jar with holes poked in the lid. Later that evening, my aunt Shirley put my cousin Alane and I in the bathtub to wash up before bed. She turned off the lights, set the glass jar on the vanity, and we got to bathe by firefly light. It was the first time I had ever seen fireflies and I've never forgotten the magic of that night.