I hope you are well as you read this blog post!

I finished my Music Together classes at the end of June, and I only have one more gig this summer (at the retirement community, Longview, where my mother lives in Ithaca, NY).

So I have a little more time on my hands — hence my slightly more frequent blog posts…

Right now I am visiting family in upstate NY.

During my nocturnal walks around the countryside, I have been very happy to be reacquainted with the extraordinary magic of fireflies.

This summer they seem to be particularly healthy and active.

It was not easy finding a public domain photo of fireflies at night on the internet.

Thank you to Wikimedia Commons and a photographer named Tyler Savitsky for the image above.

As with so many natural phenomena, it is somewhat impossible to describe in words the majesty and miracle of a field full of fireflies at night.

To me it feels like I am entering nature’s (and/or G-d’s) brain — with each blink of a firefly corresponding to the firing of a neural synapse.

According to Wikipedia there are many different varieties of firefly‚ and most of them have the amazing ability to make some part of their body photoluminesce a.k.a. light up.

Among other things, this helps in the process of attracting and selecting a mate.

You can click the link two paragraphs above to learn a bunch of fascinating things about fireflies.

For example, in certain human cultures they are especially revered — such as in Japan, where there are parks created to watch them.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

A field of fireflies at night also reminds me of a sky full of stars, which is the theme of today’s throwback blog post.

You can click here to visit (or re-visit) a blog post from September 2014 inspired by the song “So Many Stars.”

What a special planet we live on… and what an extraordinary universe we live in!

Another deep breath in.

And deep breath out.

For some truly jaw-dropping photos of fireflies, you can click here to read a story done by NPR a few summers ago featuring a photographer in New York state named Peter Mauney.

Thank you to the folks who create and maintain and update Wikipedia.

Thank you to the photographer Tyler Savitski.

Thank you to the photographer Jaisung An at Pixabay.

Thank you to the photographer Pete Mauney and NPR.

And thank YOU for reading another one of my blog posts.