I have been a Los Angeles devotee for over 20 years, but I moved around quite a bit as a child (Rhode Island, Maryland, Texas, Connecticut, and finally Los Angeles). It was sometimes tough to move, but I feel it taught me quite a bit as a child… to be adaptable, to be accepting of new places and people, and to embrace change.
These experiences imbued me with an urge to travel as an adult, and about twice a year I get that familiar itch… to re-visit places I’ve been or to search out new ones.
Visiting my brother in Virginia this week has been filled with magical moments. Re-introducing cousins, pining over architecture and history not found out West, and reminiscing over the past.
One such moment came last evening as I took a run along the Potomac river with my brother. As I swept away the bugs splatting on my face and flying into my nose (I felt like a windshield on a highway), I spotted a long-lost but familiar glow amongst the trees. OMG… it’s a firefly!
You’d think I just spotted a UFO! My brother didn’t quite share in my excitement, but he’s been in VA for over 10 years. The last time I’d seen one I was 12 years old, chasing them down and cruelly capturing them in a Mason jar for my Pa Pa’s 4th of July birthday in Louisville, KY.
They say “you can never go home again”, but I beg to differ. For me, home has been many places, and sometimes it just takes two tiny wings and the glow of a firefly to take me there.
