Fireflies & Fairies

I just arrived in Costa Rica for the third time this year. I like it down here. The jungle is raw, the people are happy and the motto is “pura vida” (live the pure life).

This time around there’s an added bonus…fireflies.

You see, we don’t have fireflies in California, where I’m from. I’m not sure why, really. Maybe it has something to do with the humidity. It’s not humid in California. It’s certainly humid here.

I find fireflies magical.

Watching them light up in the (very) dark outdoors here is an adventure in the unknown. Where will the next one ignite? How many might spark up at once? Where do they come from anyway!? I could imagine if little magical fairies were coming to visit the 3D world from some fairyland, they would look like this. Little sparks of glowing energy popping up in the darkness randomly.

It’s best not to look at fireflies closely if you’re imagining them as fairies. Flies and faires are very different in 3D.

The stars here are miraculous too. Not many city lights at night near Nosara Beach in Costa Rica…so the night sky fills with a cascade of stars…some in recognizable constellations, many just filling the sky in patterns I don’t know. The Milky Way is quite distinguishable and there’s the occasional shooting star or slow-moving satellite way up wherever.

Mesmerized, I stare at the stars and fireflies for quite some time. It is a show, really, one as natural as the jungle all around me here. One full of as much drama and interest as any TV series.

How odd that the majority of earth’s population live in cities, never, or not often, experiencing this very thing. This awestruck experience of nature being so magical and entertaining and far greater than anything man’s invented to date.

I can’t help but think if more of us were experiencing this many stars every night, we may spend less time wondering how to “get a leg up” on nature and more time realizing that there’s already a perfect operating system going on all around us. I’m not sure exactly what fireflies do for the rest of the flora and fauna around, but I have no doubt it’s something perfect…because everything else is a balance. Bending to Nature’s will seems so much easier and smarter than bending Nature to Man’s will on a night like tonight.

For me, tonight, the fireflies tell a different story, as each individual shines its light and shows itself to the rest. “Just be your magical self,” they say, “…shine your light…you never know if someone may be watching in awe.”