The Magic Forest

One of the aspects we have loved so far about North Carolina is how wooded it is. Even though we live just down the street from a major university and the commercial hub of Chapel Hill, we are surrounded by trees and creeks and trails, deer and foxes and birds. Although the flora and fauna are different, it reminds me of the magical wooded trails I often walked in Switzerland.

The last two nights, however, Chapel Hill's forests have leveled up their magic. Sunday evening we took Max for a walk at twilight through one of the forest trails near our house. As the stars came out, they were joined by more fireflies than I have ever seen before.

All around us, up and down the trees and as far in the distance as the eyes could see, there were mini strobe lights popping on and off at random intervals. It reminded me of the stands during SuperBowl halftime as camera flashes would go off all over the place. I'm used to a few fireflies being around lighting up at infrequent intervals but this . . . this was something else.

We walked slowly along the trail and then, upon returning home, turned off the lights in our house to see if we could see them in the woods behind our deck. Indeed, deep in the woods there were little fairy lights twinkling everywhere. Truly magical.

I may be 36 now, but I am far from too old to be awed by a little magic in the natural world. Well done, magic forest; well done!