I was going to write about food.
I have quite a few notes about food. The specific one I was thinking of using this week is both food and wedding related. You see, before it was decided that we would put recipes on our wedding invitations but after it was determined that something food related would be done, I wrote a series of food quips. Short sentences that were fun to read and conveyed something of real food wisdom. I thought maybe those could go on the flipside of the invitation. But truthfully, immense love of cooking and consuming aside, I mostly wanted to add something else to the card to make it a little less...useless. I know that some people will keep our invitation out of sentiment (the smallest group), many will keep them out of habit (something has to clutter the fridge door, doesnt't it?!), some will guiltifully throw them away (toooootally cool with me as long as they are actually recycled and not trashed) and just a handful (I would be in this group) will copy down the information and happily plop the card in the recycling bin. I wanted to decrease the uselessness for the first and second groups. I hoped to find an inclusion that would allow the invitation to retain some purpose even after all of its information has been acted upon, and let's be honest, even after the wedding is over and the card is still around. Although I enjoyed the food advice tidbits, they didn't quite fit the bill. I kept the note though (gasp- hypocrisy abounds! - temporarily) and I intended to elaborate on it here.
But then I didn't.
I wrote a quick tale instead. It eliminates two notes.
NOTE:
Firefly loves fire.
May 15, 2015. 7:37pm
Fire firefly story.
September 18, 2015. 8:14pm
(It’s nice to know that if I hadn’t written the idea down the first time that at least this one would’ve come back to me. Granted they both occurred under the same conditions- sitting on the back porch of my in-laws place in Michigan, watching embers dart off of the fire pit. This idea would’ve most likely kept presenting itself until it was acted upon. Good thing I changed gears this week.)
They never got to see each other at the same time. Only when his own brilliance dimmed, leaving him wearing the darkness, could he see her radiance. In fact she had never seen him at all because the truth was that he so feared losing sight of her that he himself never glowed. He hoped for a fraction of time in which they could both shine and recognize each other but such was not the way of light and dark so he dare not risk trying.
He only ever caught the slightest glimpses of her, each just a faint memory of a snuffed out flame, but he knew he loved her. For one thing she was brave. Darting in and out the flames as though they hadn't all been taught as larvae to resist the draw of the fire; that its wisps had proven long ago that they were no kindred spirit to the firefly. All of the others, whom he knew he could never love, sat low in the grass or safely in a bush, blinking their steady pattern of love, waiting for the right ship to crash into their monotony. Not her. He would watch as she flashed intensely just out of reach of one of the fire's many arms, darting ferociously, only to then decide upon a casual ascent, meandering upward, refusing to look back at the monstrous flames that lashed out at her. If only he could make such a fearless show of light.
He hid in a darkness that was his to break, watching until she finally spiraled out of the fire's reach, dimming her own light and basking in the night. He watched and waited for her to reappear. Which she always did, right at the tip of a flame, taunting it with her nearness and challenging it to claim her as its own. He longed to go to her. To tell her that he had seen her, found her hundreds of times amongst the flames, found her again and again as though she had been still. He needed to tell her that he knew that their love could be different. For as those who know fireflies know, fireflies can only love with consistency. Each being so regularly blinded by their own existence that if they didn’t remain in place, diligently signaling, defying change, they would lose each other.
He hadn’t lost her yet though. He never would. His existence was tied to her light, not his own. He needed to get to her. He beseeched the night filling the spaces between the flames to remain resolute, to hold back the whipping heat from where he must go. If she could, he would. He would find her at her brightest. Catch her just outside the fire and they could escape together. He could finally light up and she would no longer need the flame.
He knew that the fire wasn't after the darkness; only man used it that way. Fire only wants more fire; it understanding better than man that you can't hold something against nothing. The fire's arms would burn through some of the night that he hid amongst but only as they were seeking her, also drawn to her flame.
He moved quickly nonetheless, willing it that just this once they would be in time with each other. That their mad dashes toward the fire were one and the same. He drew himself up just short of the flame. So close he could see that it was something else. Not an angry beast that consumed fireflies heartlessly but rather a grotesque misunderstanding of nature, seeking survival the only way it could. He felt its draw. Then he saw her, too close to the flames this time. Their motions more similarly tied than he could’ve anticipated.
As he threw himself at her, her spark ready to ignite a love to consume them, he saw her for what she really was and realized that he was right after all. The fire doesn't just greedily take fireflies. It had given him the only thing he'd ever loved.
Haven’t had enough?
I won’t leave anyone wanting. Also, I don’t want to leave the note in my phone.
Enjoy these in their non-expounded-upon state. It’s a list. You’ll love it. Just ask Buzzfeed, people love lists.
1.When in doubt, add goat cheese.
2.Knead your pizza dough for 15 MINUTES. No questions.
3.Taste it, it probably needs more salt.
4.Never waste the zest.
5. Grass-fed butter, use it.
6. Soup needs an acid; otherwise you’re just serving hot water.
7. Eggs. Eggs. Eggs.
8. Apples go with everything. Trust me, I've tried it.
9. You should be roasting your veggies.
Thank you.