Heat Lightening and Lightening Bugs

Tonight as I drove up the hill, heading back home from a long day at work, I was greeted by the most beautiful display of heat lightening illuminating the sky and lightening bugs (aka fireflies) dancing through the fields.  It was one of those moments that most individuals take for granted as they speed through life mulling over the less important details.  I, on the other hand, was completely mesmerized.  The lightening coruscated through the clouds like the grand finale of the Fireman's Festival Fireworks, though mute as the atmosphere absorbed their sound.  These things are a rarity to see.

I feel fortunate that we still see the fireflies up here.  I remember running around with a jar as a kid, trying to capture enough to act as a lantern; something right out of a fairytale.  But as I got older I noticed their numbers seemed to be dwindling.  No one really knows for sure why they seem to be disappearing but there are many theories: increased land development, light pollution, lack of suitable habitat, and reactions to agricultural chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides.  It's true that the landscape is changing, and quickly.  Every day it seems that more and more housing developments are going up, invading our shrinking farming communities.  It saddens me to be seeing so much farmland being sold and converted.  And it scares me to think that less than 2% of the population in this country are still farmers, desperately trying to provide for the more that 98% of the remaining population (statistic from Food Inc.)  Will we wake up and realize this before it's too late?  Will we be able to repair the damage that has already been done.  These are hard questions to ask, and I find that if I dwell on them too long I start to feel like Alice falling down the rabbit hole.

So back to the Fireflies.  A friend of mine must have been floating on the same wavelength as me tonight when she posted a link to the Firefly site pictured above.  I was encouraged by the knowledge that there are others out there wondering the same as me.   How much would be lost by the disappearance of these illuminant little creatures.  They truly are magical.