| As a kid, nothing matters more than the moment you’re in. Catching fireflies is one of my favorite memories with my Dad. They are memories that I was always fully in. And he was fully in. We were fully present together, something you only appreciate more as you grow older. The cool green blades of summer grass laid out under the contrast of a dark summer sky that had just begun to break from dawn. The smell of the warm air. My bare feet running across the grass and forgiving ground. Free. Looking for those lights. Those little lights that would flicker throughout the yard and show themselves in scattered traces. The thing about catching fireflies is that you don’t actually need to be quick to catch them. As a kid, you have just as good of a chance as grabbing as many as an adult could with better reflexes and speed. You see, catching fireflies is about seeing. To catch the summer sparks of dreams that light up the night sky, you must be able to see them first. I would be waiting for the moment they would light-up and then run towards them as fast as I could before they flickered off, turning invisible before my eyes. They are cloaked by the night as soon as their spark dims, nearly impossible to see. When they would light-up again, I would run leaping and bounding towards catching them before they would turn off once more. You almost have to time it right so that you are close enough to reach out and grab one while it’s lit up and visible. Each time you get closer to one and it turns off, you may lose sight of it, even with it being inches before your face. The next time it illuminates, it could be another ten feet away – and when that happened I would take off to chase it again. I remember my Dad pointing to them, “there’s one, Grant!”. He would point and show me where they were when they began to light up the yard as night fell. We would get our gear, all our special little nets and contraptions to keep them in and set out on the adventure to grab as many as we could. Catching them and harnessing all of their light in one place felt like it lit up our own world. It was like catching dreams and watching them spark and glimmer all together in one place. A good Dad helps you do that. Gear up for the journey. Get you ready. And points the way and the wonders out to you along it, almost letting the thrill and energy of the moment doing the talking. The fireflies and laughing as we chased them were all the dialect we needed. Fireflies are funny in an elusive way because if you’ve ever seen one or chased one before you know that they don’t stay illuminated for long. Imagine if they were continuously bright. My backyard would have looked like someone strung 10,000 Christmas lights across it, completely lit up. When we chase dreams, it’s a lot like catching fireflies. There’s a spark. It always starts with a spark. And then, that spark usually vanishes for a while. But, if we’re patient, and we continue to look and chase, and move towards the direction where we saw it, it tends to reappear, like the firefly does. Sometimes in a slightly different direction, and then we adjust and keep moving closer and closer. Sometimes we even end up closer to a different light and end up grabbing it when it wasn’t the one we set out for to begin with. There are so many wonders around us, all like fireflies lighting up the summer night sky in my childhood. They are dancing and flickering in the dark, daring us to chase them down and grab them. Daring us to collect them and light up the world with each one. And it must be dark to see them. Fireflies are special because they are only visible in the dark. Why is it that some of life’s most luminous moments must come to us only visible in the dark? Darkness enhances light. The darker the surroundings are, the brighter that light transcends across the backyard, and maybe even the world. Fireflies, like some of life’s most brilliant moments, represent the night’s inability to shutout the fire of dreams. I think there’s special things we can only see and know in the dark. If the sun always shined, we would miss these things. The darkness may not always be welcomed in our lives, except now, I always remember one thing when it gets dark. Catching fireflies can only happen when it’s dark out. Do we give up on dreams too soon because they disappear for a moment? Do we look away and kill our gaze because the little light we saw for a second is now evading us? Chase them. Chase them and the light will return. They can only go so long without lighting up again. When you’re catching fireflies it’s priceless to have someone fully there with you. Someone that will help gear you up and get ready to go out into the night and chase alongside you, with a helpful point here or there. Someone who knows it isn’t all about how fast you get there or how quick you can be. Someone who understands that catching fireflies is about seeing. Seeing, and continuing to chase and believe in what you saw when the lights go out. It’s important to have someone with you who helps allow you to dream. That’s right – allow. We’re inherently taught to kill our dreams to avoid disappointment. The wonder of the chase dims as we get older. We end up trading the thrill of the fight for the burden of the battle, and reality tries to crush the breath out of our truest and deepest desires. My Dad see’s the dreams and things that are important to me. He calls them out. He asks me meaningful questions about them. He is consciously alongside me, helping me see the lights and reminding me I have what it takes to get there. He believes in me. My Dad and I are still catching fireflies together. We may not have little nets and contraptions anymore, but we’re still running. Running barefoot across the grass towards those little lights. Catching every glimmer of hope and spark of a dream that we can. Fully in. Fully present. Seeing all these fireflies around us. |