I readily admit I’ve never been the biggest fan of summer’s sweltering heat. I remember getting sick easily in the heat which was one of the reasons my parents put in air conditioning.
I do, however, adore the long hours of daylight. All those wonderful hours spent every evening catching lightning bugs. Happily chasing them and putting them in a jar that had a lid which my Mother had sacrificed by putting holes in it for the bugs to breathe. I was sad when my Dad would say it was time to let them go because I thought they were surely one of the most beautiful things on earth. To this day I enjoy nothing more than watching lightning bugs twinkling against an ink-black night. If twinkle lights on Christmas trees could but see lightning bugs in all their glory, how envious they would be.
A day full of humidity calls to mind days long gone of air heavily perfumed with honeysuckle. The finest shops in Paris have never been able to top that sweet fragrance. It was absolutely heavenly and I remember how exciting it was to take apart the blossoms and taste the nectar. Such bliss from an ordinary thing.
Picking wildflowers for my mother was always something I couldn’t wait to do as a child. I looked forward to it and picked every flower I could find and would throw in leaves for their shape. They never failed to make my Momma smile and while I was a daddy’s girl, I loved my Mother as much as humanely possible and would have done anything to see her smile. Mommy’s health was never great and I thought I could help by simply making her happy.
After Momma passed away, I was looking through some of her favorite books. There between the pages were some of those wildflowers. A reminder that for a brief moment a gentler, happier time did exist. It was now my turn to smile over these flowers once picked by such small hands with big love. They’re now a testimony to a place and feeling frozen in time if only between the pages of the book. Bless my Mom for keeping them so I would have a reminder of the love on days that seem too much.
My hope for all of you, dear readers, is that you too may have reminders of simpler, better days.
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