Chasing firefly's

When I was a kid, one of my favorite things in the summer was to chase and capture firefly’s or “lightening bugs” as we used to call them. I remember finding an old mason jar, poking holes in the lid with a screw driver and then waiting. I would sit and wait for them to show themselves….to emit a tiny little flash of light and I would chase them with breathless hope, and capture them. They were now mine. They were bright and shiny and for a short time, they made me really happy. The elusive bright, shiny thing we tell ourselves we “have to have” to be happy. I remember the times I would not actually capture any and I would be heart broken. My world just didn’t seem as bright.

As we get older, we stop doing those simple things and move into something more, something bigger. Instead of chasing the elusive firefly, we chase the perfect mate, the most amazing job, the shiny car….the things we think add value to our lives when in turn, they are just something fleeting we have. We cling to these new things so hard and so long and when their bright shininess fades, we look for something new to fill it. When the perfect mate we thought would be with us forever, leaves us, or we chose to leave them, we find something shiner and new to replace it. When a job no longer fulfills our needs, our corporate hope to climb the later we find something new. We are always running after something with such abandonment that we may forget to enjoy the light it brings to us right now.

When is enough enough?

At times I wish I could go back to the simpler time in life. When it meant something to go out and play. When you learned from your friends where baby's really came from....that they didn't come from a stork or by finding a half-dollar under your pillow. Now there are video games or a million TV channels to distract and teach children more about life that they really need to know and forget about all the stuff they have access to via the Internet. Makes one's head spin. Even at my old age I learn so many things from just "surfing". I miss the simple life. When you cut your finger and became a "blood" sister with your best friend. When chasing firefly's was what was the entertainment for any night.

These days there is so much we use to distract ourselves, TV, jobs, bars, events, clubs....everything we do is to create that bigger and better life we think we need to have. How does one go back to just needing the simple things in life. The easy peasy times? I envision a life of less stress almost everyday, now just need to get me a mason jar and start enjoying.