HER DAUGHTER AND THE FIREFLIES

 

She is often asked for the secret to happiness…

Her answer comes as a surprise…

for she always tells the story 

of her daughter 

and the fireflies.

“My daughter used to chase fireflies out on our front lawn

back and forth she’d pursue them…as their lights blinked off and on.”

“She’d turn this way and that way, she’d walk, she’d hop, she’d run.

She was great at chasing fireflies…but she never caught a one.”

“Then one night around the campfire…after she had given up the chase

a firefly landed on her arm and a smile lit up her face.”

“Look Momma!” she said look at my arm…look…look…can you see?

I wonder if all the time I was chasing fireflies…they were chasing me?”

“And it wasn’t until she stopped chasing fireflies”, the old woman said

her face now beaming bright

“That she found the happiness that eluded her…

only then did she catch the light”.

People who have heard her tell this story

speak of how her cheeks turn rosy and a gleam comes to her eyes

as she smiles telling the story

of her daughter…

and the fireflies.