Star in my pocket.

[Kai]

Theres a firefly, a member of the family of beetles called Lampyridae, in the Southern Appalacians that has a very different sort of light. It's not the yellow flash patterns you see in many other fireflies, but a blue sustained glow.

Tonight, HT, another colleague and I visited a place where these emerge in large numbers. We walked back into the forest down a gravel trail, turned off our flashlights and let our eyes adjust.


As the burn out cleared, there they were, floating.
Blue glowing flames like lanterns amid the trunks of trees,
will of the wisps, coming and going, appearing and disapearing,
they were spirits of the dead, or fairies, or simply orbs of energy.

These were the males, they moved in patterns above the ground,
illuminating the leaves and dirt where the females rest, their bodies
like a hazy globe. There were so many, covering the hillside, and
we mistaked them for the stars in the sky, they were
like blue stars that had come down from heaven to play
among the trees.

So, I captured a star in my pocket, and brought it home with me.

[Jasper]

If that's not magic, I don't know what is.

[Herbertina Merrique V]

If that's not magic, I don't know what is.

Inb4 Inane Clown Posse

I also liked the OP.

[Kai]

If that's not magic, I don't know what is.

You had to see it to believe it.

I was telling HT on the way out, "No one is going to believe us."

[Jasper]

Well, you have evidence.  You stuck a bug in your pocket.

[Freeky]

 

[Elder Iptuous]

no pics?

[Kai]

no pics?

There are trail pictures online somewhere. It's really hard to get stills, due to how dim the light is and how dark the conditions must be to see it.

[Adios]

It's because of the secret nuclear weapons plant there.

[Kai]

It's because of the secret nuclear weapons plant there.

I think it's very unlikely that a nice old potter is hiding a nuclear weapons manufacturing facility in an old growth forest.

[rubickspoop]

It's because of the secret nuclear weapons plant there.

I think it's very unlikely that a nice old potter is hiding a nuclear weapons manufacturing facility in an old growth forest.

That's what makes it the perfect hiding place.

But yeah, seeing that beautiful form of life sounds like the potential for an uplifting spiritual experience.

[Adios]

Yeah, we just have the ordinary lightening bugs here.

[Kai]

It's because of the secret nuclear weapons plant there.

I think it's very unlikely that a nice old potter is hiding a nuclear weapons manufacturing facility in an old growth forest.

That's what makes it the perfect hiding place.

But yeah, seeing that beautiful form of life sounds like the potential for an uplifting spiritual experience.

Every species provides that sort of experience though, if you spend enough time in awareness to know where and when to look. And it's about how you look too. This is qualitative natural history, where meaning and feelings merge into felt-significance, it's appreciation.

Theres going to be a large emergence of another species in the Smokies in June. I plan on attending.

[Juana]

I'm jealous. We don't get those out here and that sounds amazing. Absolutely awesome.

[Jenne]

One of the things I miss about visiting MO...lightning bugs in the summertime...