The Summer Solstice, Lightning Bugs and Cicadas

 Yesterday an amazing astrological event occurred.  The sun traveled its longest path through the sky and reached its highest point of the year—making yesterday the longest day of 2021. In spite of our attempts to make Memorial Day Weekend the beginning of summer—the solstice is the true beginning of the season.  This astrological phenomena happens every year at about mid-year, and has, no doubt, occurred since the universe came into being.  

We are all familiar with “fireflies” or “lightning bugs”—another amazing phenomena of nature.  Lightning bugs are beetles (like the ladybug).  Neither are bugs. Lightning bugs live for only a couple of weeks as adults (about a year from egg to adult).  The flashes we see in our backyards when darkness comes is the language of love. The male of the species is looking for females.  “They flash a specific pattern while they fly, hoping for a female reply.  If a female waiting in the grass likes what she sees, she responds back with a flash of her own.  They will engage in this twinkling love-making until the male locates the female and they mate.”  Isn’t that romantic?   Isn’t it really incredible?

Perhaps you’ve noticed that there aren’t as many lightning bugs “lighting up” your backyard in recent years.  That’s because of “light pollution” which prevents the lightning bugs from seeing each other’s flashes, creating havoc in their love life.  Turn off those outdoor lights!  Like bees, the lightning bugs are also threatened by habitat loss, pesticide use and climate change. 

Everybody is talking about the cicadas this year.  The cicada is another of nature’s wonders.  They live underground for years and only come above-ground in adult form to reproduce (to love).  Some species live underground for 17 or more years.  When they do “come out” into the light it is for one purpose—and once that purpose is fulfilled—they die (usually within a month).  What kind of life is that?  Living in the darkness all those years and only experiencing the “light of day” for a few weeks doesn’t have much appeal to me.  Like the lightning bug, the cicada (only the male) sings a love song and longs for a response before his day is done.

Now what am I trying to say?  I’m trying to say that all the remaining days of this year 2021 will be shorter than yesterday.  Every new day from here on out, will be shorter than the day before.  So we must sing our love song while it is day, lighting-up our own lives and the lives of others.  “What the world needs now” is for us to become what we (like the lightning bug and the cicada) are called to be—instruments of love—while it is day.