{"id":1229,"date":"2007-07-04T15:14:24","date_gmt":"2007-07-04T15:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/chatteringmind\/2007\/07\/its-firefly-season.html"},"modified":"2007-07-04T15:14:24","modified_gmt":"2007-07-04T15:14:24","slug":"its-firefly-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2007\/07\/its-firefly-season.html","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s Firefly Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"fireflychat.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/183\/import\/fireflychat.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"201\" style=\"float:right;margin: 5px\" \/>The best summer fireworks are provided by fireflies, those bliss-conjuring, blinking beetles that  fly (I hope) in the backyards of your neighborhood.<br \/>\nI had an intense, spiritual experience communing with fireflies two years ago while on a silent retreat near Pittsfield, Massachusetts. As I was walking up a hill, returning to my hut after dusk, the shadows of the forest were a dark green-blue, and the sky was lit by luminous stars. As I came into a meadow, my jaw dropped at the site of hundreds, maybe thousands, of fireflies flying around and blinking in the clearing near my screen door. It was like they were having a busy  convention there in my honor. So I had the stars above me, and huge numbers of fireflies surrounding me. Light above, light around, light within, as I was discovering. This amazing moment is something I&#8217;ll always remember and be able to call upon in dark times. I stood there a long time enjoying the show, unable to move really, rather incredulous that it was happening.<br \/>\nThe web boasts a lot of firefly facts and information. Some of the most interesting data comes from amateur entomologist, Terry Lynch, who expresses his love of the insect in <a href=\"http:\/\/byteland.org\/naturalist\/firefly_faq.html#authorities\" target=\" _new\">wonderful ways<\/a> (just follow the links) . He&#8217;s studied the habits of the adult <em>Photinus pyralis <\/em>species, photographed their larvae, and even developed rearing techniques. He also has strategies for <a href=\"http:\/\/byteland.org\/firefly\/safezone.html\" target=\"_new\">firefly preservation,<\/a> seeing the irresponsible development of pine forests, and mass insecticide sprayings as the biggest threats currently. And here&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/animals.nationalgeographic.com\/animals\/bugs\/firefly.html\" target=\"_blank\">a great photo<\/a> from National Geographic.<br \/>\nAs I looked around for other resources, I found <a href=\"http:\/\/karenswhimsy.com\/altered-books\/cup\/firefly-poem.htm\" target=\"_new\">this Firefly collage\/poem <\/a>by <a href=\"http:\/\/karenswhimsy.com\/\" target=\"_new\">Karen Hatzigeorgiou<\/a>. It captures my feelings about the world&#8217;s best bug, and I know will appeal to you, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The best summer fireworks are provided by fireflies, those bliss-conjuring, blinking beetles that fly (I hope) in the backyards of your neighborhood. I had an intense, spiritual experience communing with fireflies two years ago while on a silent retreat near Pittsfield, Massachusetts. As I was walking up a hill, returning to my hut after dusk,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holistic-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>It&#039;s Firefly Season - Chattering Mind<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2007\/07\/its-firefly-season.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It&#039;s Firefly Season - Chattering Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The best summer fireworks are provided by fireflies, those bliss-conjuring, blinking beetles that fly (I hope) in the backyards of your neighborhood. I had an intense, spiritual experience communing with fireflies two years ago while on a silent retreat near Pittsfield, Massachusetts. As I was walking up a hill, returning to my hut after dusk,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2007\/07\/its-firefly-season.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Chattering Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-07-04T15:14:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/chatteringmind\/files\/import\/fireflychat.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"acunningham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"It's Firefly Season - Chattering Mind","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2007\/07\/its-firefly-season.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"It's Firefly Season - Chattering Mind","og_description":"The best summer fireworks are provided by fireflies, those bliss-conjuring, blinking beetles that fly (I hope) in the backyards of your neighborhood. I had an intense, spiritual experience communing with fireflies two years ago while on a silent retreat near Pittsfield, Massachusetts. As I was walking up a hill, returning to my hut after dusk,&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2007\/07\/its-firefly-season.html","og_site_name":"Chattering Mind","article_published_time":"2007-07-04T15:14:24+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/chatteringmind\/files\/import\/fireflychat.jpg"}],"author":"acunningham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2007\/07\/its-firefly-season.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2007\/07\/its-firefly-season.html","name":"It's Firefly Season - Chattering Mind","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2007\/07\/its-firefly-season.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2007\/07\/its-firefly-season.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/chatteringmind\/files\/import\/fireflychat.jpg","datePublished":"2007-07-04T15:14:24+00:00","dateModified":"2007-07-04T15:14:24+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/#\/schema\/person\/766f85648e76203a6db89116616b2865"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2007\/07\/its-firefly-season.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2007\/07\/its-firefly-season.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2007\/07\/its-firefly-season.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/chatteringmind\/files\/import\/fireflychat.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/chatteringmind\/files\/import\/fireflychat.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/2007\/07\/its-firefly-season.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"It&#8217;s Firefly Season"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/","name":"Chattering Mind","description":"Amy Cunningham, Spirituality blog, Beliefnet Spiritual parenting blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/#\/schema\/person\/766f85648e76203a6db89116616b2865","name":"acunningham","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/345\/34587845ed43772d154b2641c713a788x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/345\/34587845ed43772d154b2641c713a788x96.jpg","caption":"acunningham"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/author\/acunningham"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/chatteringmind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}