I can still remember those summer nights of my youth so vividly that I can almost breathe them in when I close my eyes and focus hard enough. There is the smell of wood smoke alive in the air with the soft crackle of the fire and relaxed adult conversation that plays back to me as a distant murmur. I would creep away from the fire out into the darkness where the subdued glow of the fire couldn’t reach. That is where the magic happened.

Fireflies seemed to just come to life in the air. Their luminescent flashes pulsing in the darkness like twinkling golden bulbs. The only thing better was catching those soft bodied beetles in a glass jar for a short period of time. The captured soft glow winking in and out created an otherworldly feel that a young mind could get lost in.

By Shari Marshall – 2019