Well, I don't quite know what is happening to me. I have always been a self-declared hater of summer, with September through December being my absolute favorite time of year, and no holiday possibly topping Christmas. Well, now I can't decide if any season, even my beloved fall, could possibly beat the summer hours in Colorado, from 7 pm to 7 am. The daylight hours are still way too hot and intense for me, but once that sun decides to go down, I can't think of many happier times. And, to add to the magic, if you can you believe it (if you are a Colorado native, you will think I am lying), a few nights ago, Gideon found a firefly flitting around the grass, Yes, an actual firefly. Haven't seen one in Colorado in my life, and had never seen a real one before age 30. I halfway thought they must be a magical myth, like a unicorn. And certainly, in Colorado, that's what they are. But no, Gideon brought that glowing little bug into the house and we started squealing at the top of our lungs. We admired and stared at the firefly for a while, but were ever so gentle and careful with it, because not for a moment would we dare to hurt it. We needed to set it free so perhaps it could help grow the minuscule (before thought to be nonexistent) firefly population in Colorado. And, not two nights later, the kids were playing a game out in the field and told me that they saw another 3-4 fireflies out there, but were unable to catch any of them. As if the summer wasn't magical enough already, these magical, mythical, little blinking bugs have apparently decided to join us on some of our summer evenings!
So, the 4th of July: that holiday that arrives at the peak of summer,which in the past felt like the one redeeming day of summer, if only to serve the purpose of marking summer's halfway point, is working it's way into my heart as being a truly legitimate holiday to attempt to rank up there with my favorites. We'll see how I feel about it this time next year. I'm feeling so disloyal writing all these nice things about summer, but I always try to be honest and admit where I've been wrong. And, I haven't been exactly wrong about summer and it's relentless heat that makes me grouchier than few things can, but I do admit that I didn't give summer, all 24 hours of its days, a fair chance.
