The Dog and the Fireflies

A new season is right around the bend. Chris will be gone for work more than ever. Carter will be leaving soon for college, and Dawson will be driving in about a year. In other words, he will be out and about with friends and home very little. What was once a hectic house full of sweaty boys, never-ending trips to the grocery store, empty milk cartons, and a mud room full of backpacks, gym clothes, guitars and drum sticks, is slowly growing more and more quiet. And here I sit, on the back patio with the dog, MacBook, and fireflies.

It is good, I think. I have always told the boys that you can look at every situation that comes your way in either a negative or a positive light, but we all get to choose. And yes, it is tough sometimes. This is a tough change. But I am already making mental plans for how to start filling the time that I have not had in 18, 19, 20 years. I look up from my computer and there are hundreds of them - tails all aglow. I choose to believe they are angels, reminding me, reminding all of us who take the time to stop and watch them fly about, that we are not alone.

The house might be a little more empty and quiet, but there is a big difference between loneliness and solitude. And with me, the dog, and the fireflies together, solitude it is!