Midsummer Firefly Forest
Koda
Image captured in August of 2022 beside Lake Taghkanic, NY on Mahican, Ramapo, Lenape, Munsee land.
Toes pointed Northward, I am standing at the end of the driveway.
My feet stepping gently over gravel toward the mossy centerline of the drive
— the soft patch that’s untouched and foot friendly.
It’s dusk.
I’m sandwiched between quiet woods on either side of me, blanketed by their canopy above.
The day’s light is slowly dimming, and I think of the sun’s setting.
The time to drink the sunlight into the soul through these eye portals.
That fantastical and fleeting threshold between day and dark, betwixt light and night. How rare for me to say no to that witnessing, that beholding.
Yet, alas, I am here, toes pointed Northward at the end of the driveway, and understandably so.
Standing sure footed, I am very well accompanied.
Thousands, if not millions of fireflies dancing across the forest floor. Spilling out into the driveway and reaching far back into the depths of the quiet forest.
Awe. Enchantment. Curiosity.
I feel the curious way my depth perception and optical precision are at a loss.
I feel stumped and by that, I am delighted.
Part of me so eager to track,
make sense
and understand.
Another part of me entirely passive as a
grateful witness,
effortlessly observing with an
intangible satisfaction of the most simple variety.
That eager part of me jumps in, rocking the boat in my mental waters;
‘it’s fascinating, really, isn’t it?!
These little self-fueled,
light beaming,
efficiency superstar creatures
are creating a wave of bioluminescence in the atmosphere,
making magic out of oxygen and—’
My heart beats heavy to quiet my left brain,
as I feel a guttural prompt to take a
breath into my diaphragm.
I feel my belly fill up as thoughts recede.
Thank you Practice.
Thank you presence.
Thank you body.
Thank you breath.
The waters still.
I hear Koda approaching from behind.
His paw prints making a quickening cadence that draws closer.
I glance down to my right to find the beautifully brindled hound beside me.
I kneel down to greet him, his body leans into my body.
We nuzzle noses and breathe a deep, syncopated breath.
I return my gaze,
softened,
to onto the firefly laden forest.
“Isn’t this incredible?” I think to Koda, as my hand wanders to nestle in alongside the nape of his neck, both of us taking in the luminosity.
As the sky loses light, the flashing in constant motion grows stronger in the darkness.
“I love it when you
slow down enough
to see it with me,
like this.” Koda thinks to me.
I smile out loud.
In the distance, a bird call emanates from a human mouth. My hand feels Koda’s ear rise to identify. I return the call, charging it with a “come here, you’ve got to see this” sort of jubilance.
You arrive, some twenty heartbeats later, and rest your arm across my shoulders. I smell the sweet summer sweat on your skin.
Together we stand,
steeping in the simplest of pleasures.
Letting the
animalistic instruments we’re renting
rise into their harmonious place
within the orchestra that’s all around us.