Catching Fireflies On A Hot Summer Night

Think about the relationships we’ve formed as children. When we’ve played together for hours. Summer, with splashing hose water on each other, playing kickball and playing with dirt. Catching fireflies on a hot summer night.

We’d have balloon fights in our old neighborhood in the summers. We’d fill up our balloons with water and throw them at each other. The balloons would break, spilling water all over. We also had berry fights, our shirts filling up with red stains that just wouldn’t come out in the wash. We thought as children that our friends would be there forever. Somehow the sense of time is slower, and even the summers inbetween the school years were drawn out. The times we would watch scores of fireflies lighting up the night grass. Trying to catch some of them, trapping them under a jar and then letting them go. Catching fireflies was something we loved to do in the summers. Between hearing the crickets and fireflies at night, there was something comforting about it.

If you could think of a metaphor for how we define our relationships, what would it be? I would think of the fireflies we’d watch, flitting around, sparks flying in the freshly cut night grass. Watching them around us, admiring them, mesmerized by them. Trying to catch them. Trapping them under glass. Then releasing them so they wouldn’t die. And feeling sad when not seeing the sparks of their light anymore. Knowing how fleeting they are, yet how beautiful. Knowing they don’t last forever.

Isn’t it ironic that the most beautiful memories in our lives can also be the most fleeting?

All writings © TravelingThrill

It’s that Dusty, Stormy Weather Ahead

Looks like storms are brewing this weekend… kind of reflects what home life is often like…ups and downs…you never know what’s going to hit you next; a hail storm, rain, getting poured on, high winds trashing and thrashing through…Right here we are getting dust storms and lightning storms…Relationships are similar when you think about it…tornadoes, rain, hail, thunder, lightning, and then…yeah…warm, sunny days (like we are having now), and then dust storms like we are experiencing in Arizona these past couple of weeks…

Ok. The freezout relationship. Think of this spring and last winter when it’s been really really cold and snowy in places around the country. Even southwest areas got snow. Some places have had about 3 inches an hour in certain areas, including the center of the country. Tornadoes might happen in some areas of Texas today, but uncertain so far. Freezing ice rain and hail in other areas. So why talk about the weather, you might ask. Comparisons between weather and relationships. Freezing rain, freeze out in communication with the spouse. Snowing, feels like things snowball at home, the dog tracked in dirt, the kids aren’t behaving, the teenager does what he or she wants.

Freezing ice? Maybe the spouse that doesn’t talk to you anymore about anything. You can’t get them to put down the Ipad, cell phone, or tear themselves away from the computer. Try as you might, freezing ice glosses things over and keeps them inert, non moving, non changing, and if you crack the ice, it’ll freeze over again, so it’s just temporary.

The Tornado relationship. Tornadoes? Well compare that to everything whirling around, too fast paced, things falling like dominoes, maybe a job, or changes in family, divorce. Losing a job, family member, going through a divorce, having to get away from a relationship quickly. And as soon as the tornado comes through, it strews destruction on things, and one is left to pick up the pieces and hope that another tornado never travels through the same area again.

Bad weather relationships, rain, thunder, hail, lightning. You suddenly get an outburst from your significant other and you don’t know what you did. He storms out and you don’t see him for hours. What do you do?

So why even bother comparing the weather to relationships? Because if anything, think about this. Weather changes. So does relationships. So, bad weather passes through. You suffer for the moment. But it does pass. So it may be with relationships. They too go through rough weather. But things pass. They change. If you don’t like the way things are going, and they seem unbearable, you can make things change. You can pilot the weather of your own relationships. You know things will pass. And you know you can make things change. So cheer up. Bad weather passes, and it again becomes sunny and bright. Relationships can go through different types of weathering, and they either come out on the other side, sunny and bright, or they don’t. In that case, you still can pick up the pieces and move on.
All writings © TravelingThrill