The Opposite of Love: Part 2

I stepped outside last night with a mix of great anticipation and deep worry, wondering if the efforts we have made over the past two days have been enough to bring some of our property back to darkness for the very special Blue Ghost firefly. We hired professional arborists to scale a handful of our towering trees and hang multiple ropes with large tarps suspended from them in our effort to erase the light of our neighbor’s street light.

At 9:30 when it was dark, my husband and I made our way around the back of our house, towards the side yard where the ground is carpeted with ferns and now, along with towering beech and tulip poplar trees, are great walls of green plastic, stretching 40 feet above the forest floor. Where only three days ago there were great patches of light stealing the darkness, now there is mostly black.  It’s not perfect and it’s not pitch black as some light still spills around the tarps. But it is darker than it was. Immediately we saw a handful of Blue Ghosts, their tiny lights painting a trail of white in the darkness. I nearly cried with delight! “Hello Blue Ghosts! Welcome!”  You know how you feel when your friend whom you haven’t seen in five years comes to visit? Or when you’ve been away from your dog (or your toddler) for a few days and they come running to greet you when you walk in the door? Well it was like that for me and my husband, watching all of “our” Blue Ghost fireflies moving through the darkness. I was so overcome with joy at seeing them happily going about their business, never knowing of the struggles us humans are having on either side of them. 

After a while my husband left me to enjoy the show alone and I spent a glorious hour and a half roaming the forested landscape, sans flashlight, watching in awe, captivated by this tiny insect most people will never know or see. Did you know Blue Ghost Fireflies don’t live anywhere else in the WORLD? They only live here, in the southern Appalachian forests. Talk about amazing. And we have them right here on our property, right beside our little house in the woods. 

The Blue Ghost show never gets old, though I see it every year. It is a symphony without music.

It is like water pouring silently over rounded rocks.

It is like Little Blue Stem grass undulating in the wind.

It is like a flock of pelicans coasting in the orange sky.

It is like the northern lights, their curtains of green dancing in the heavens.

The trails of the Blue Ghosts moving silently in the dark forest make me feel something beyond what’s possible with words. And unlike just about everything else I’ve ever written about I have no photos. And you know what? That’s fine with me as I think their display defies permanent records. It’s not just what you see when you watch them, but what you feel too. And how can that be photographed? Captured? It’s fine that I have no photos of this. I don’t want to have my head stuck behind my camera. When I’m watching, I just want to watch, to BE, to enjoy. It never ceases to make me feel reverent and lucky and joyous. And wanting to shout it from the rooftops and share it with everyone I know. 

Do you live locally in Western North Carolina, or close enough that you could drive? Want to see the magic of the Blue Ghost firefly for yourself? Can you keep a secret? Are you one of my blog subscribers? If you answered yes to all of those questions then this is the post for you as I am once again inviting you, my blog subscribers, to come out and enjoy the Blue Ghosts with us. Tomorrow I will be sending out invitations (I will likely limit this to 30 people) to friends and if you’d like to be included and answered yes to all of the above questions, email me and say so. I will send you an invitation too for our 4th Annual Blue Ghost Viewing Party. If you are in need of some soul food–this is the place!