.....evening.............

....wishing for a lightning bug............

Well...  here we are at week 9 of mine and Nicole's 52 weeks!!!  Can't believe that it is April already....  our word for this week is "evening"!!  Be sure and head over and check out Nicole's shot for this week!!  I am always amazed and inspired by her work!! 

I have to admit that I really struggled with this word....  not because I didn't know what I wanted to shoot...  but because I couldn't find it!!!  :)  I may have to revisit this word again in the summer!!!  You see.... evening is my favorite time of the day....  has been for as long as I can remember!  As an adult....  evening time is family time.... the time when you finally get to come home from a long day spent with basically strangers to the people that you love....  it's the time of the day when everyone and everything settles down....  even the sun!!  :)  But my true love for this time of the day began a long time ago when I was just a little kid!!  Now, I would spend almost the entire day outside playing when I was a kid....  riding my bike.... building forts....  wading through the creek looking for tadpoles or crawdaddy's!!  And then it would happen....  that distant call of your name....  "Shelly.... dinner!!!!"  Ya didn't really want to stop playing but you knew that the faster that you ate....  the sooner you would be able to head back outside!!!  Now the rule around my house was... "you have to come in when the street lights come on!"....  so I would gobble up my dinner and fly out the door....  into the evening air.... which always seemed to feel a little crisper than any other time of the day and I have a very clear recollection of the feeling of the cool damp evening grass on my bare feet....    Evenings were different....  like a whole new world.... filled with a different kind of fun!  I have always thought that it was sooo strange how the world seemed more awake that ever before.... right before bedtime!!!  :)  Evenings were filled with endless games of hide n go seek...  and a frantic attempt to catch something....  some kind of treasure to call you own before those street lights came on!!!  Frogs.... moths... crickets.... grasshoppers....  and lightening bugs (they were my favorite)....  the evening was full of em....  and I was always on the hunt for something to put in the Mason jar (or mayonnaise jar...heehee) beside my bed!!!  Now when I was a kid I didn't have a bug net....  nope.... it was just me....  chasing down my new found pet....  in that golden little hour between light and dark...  right before God has the final word of the day in the form of a breathtaking sunset!!!  Man... what I wouldn't give to have just a moment of that innocent carefree life back!!!! 

So my shot this week is pretty darn lacking in the artistic value department.....  and I have to admit that I did try to catch something (butterfly... moth... ladybug... even a frog!!!) to put in my jar...  with absolutely NO LUCK :(   but it is a symbol of something that can't really be captured in a photo......  it is a symbol of a treasured childhood....  memories that will carry me through to the end of my days.....  and a reminder to myself that although I am a whole lot older now....  your never really too old to step out into the evening air and chase lightening bugs!!!  :)