A Summer Like Evening

Yesterday was another hot day, the kind that makes sweat form on the your hairline at the neck. Not oppressive but ever present. As the sky changed from pastels to bright oranges, the same exact orange as the glow from the fire, the fireflies appeared. Close to the ground at first, like hundreds of sparks dancing in the evening air. I have never in my life seen so many fireflies at one time, they were everywhere. Little fairy lights dancing higher in the air the longer they were out. The garden and goats pasture was alive with these magnificent bits of light, flashing on and off. The air was changing fast. From hot to cool and refreshing. A gentle breeze stirred the cottonwood tree, the leaves making a sound much like a quaking Aspen. Pepper watched with suspicion the little chicks scurrying around for the last bit of food found on the ground. You could almost read the puppy's mind from watching her expression, "should I chase those little things or not?" She opted to just be lazy and lay at my feet. Emery was fixing the big farm gate up front, making it so the puppy could not get out and onto the road. How I love watching him work, always fixing things to perfection, nothing ever sloppy or half done and it seems he can do just about anything...growing up on a farm seems to give you all kinds of abilities.
The other day we had a repairman here to put in a new hot water heater. He said to me, " I have known your husband for years now and I so admire him, he is just the nicest person and walks the walk always." I agreed with him and could share that he is the same at home with his family as he is in public. In the nearly 30 years of marriage, this gentle man has never said one unkind word to me. Not one ! Watching him walk to his shop last night to get a tool or something, just warmed my heart, filled me with butterflies too, still, after all these years.
While I sat out there by the fire pit, thinking about how time moves so slowly in the absence of clocks, of television or radio. By the fire pit the evening lingers, fosters good conversations and sometimes when Melanie is out there with us, she sings to us...old Irish tunes. Some make us laugh and some make us feel mellow or remind us of ancient times.
I love evenings like last night. Long, slow and makes you aware of the sights and sounds that sooth the soul and calm you right to your core.