These days I find I don't have a lot to write about. I think about a lot of things, yet they seem fleeting and/or trivial. I would rather stand on the back porch and dusk and watch the fireflies. There is a time to be a deep thinker. There is a time to think nothing and just watch something miraculous. For a lot of us, the latter is much harder than the former. Although explaining a miracle can detract from its effect, my curious mind gets the best of me every year and I have to research what makes fireflies glow. So, for those of you who have forgotten (like I do every year....)......Fireflies have dedicated light organs that are located under their abdomens. They take in oxygen and, inside special cells, combine it with a substance called luciferin to produce light with almost no heat. Firefly light is usually intermittent, and flashes in patterns that are unique to each species (there are more than 200 species!). Each blinking pattern is an optical signal that helps fireflies find potential mates. Scientists are not sure how the insects regulate this process to turn their lights on and off.
So enjoy them while they are here! They don't grace our presence for long each year, and now is the time.
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