Guatemala Part 3: Glow Bugs & Bucket Lists

I was sitting on the living room floor watching an episode of Winnie the Pooh with my little sister. Pooh Bear was holding a jar with a glow bug in it. I turned to my Mom and said,
"Mom....are glow bugs really real?"
She responded, "Yes. Your father and I used to see them in Alabama."
I recall, very clearly, turning back to the T.V. and making my first determined statement concerning my future.
"Some day...I will see a glow bug."

Thus was the beginning of my bucket list.

To hunt down a magical little bug that was no more real to me than a unicorn.

#washingtongirlproblems 

I thought the time had surly come the day I boarded a plane to Texas in April of 2010. 

My eyes were PEELED April....May.....June....July....

Nothing. 

I didn't see a single one.

Flash forward pushing two decades from when I made that promise to myself. I was at a water park in Honduras (June 2013) and it was beginning to get dark. We had local friends who worked there, so when the park closed, we got to stay! We were all being silly, sitting around talking, when I saw a faint glimmer out of the corner of my eye.

I turned my head to see it again and my stomach DROPPED as I saw another and another and another. I completely forgot about anything around me. This was the moment I had been waiting for almost my whole life. I took out my camera and tried for about 30 seconds to get a good picture before my Jimminy Cricket whispered faintly....."your missing it..."....I sat in that tiny futbol field crying silent tears and feeling SO much joy.

They were more magical and beautiful than I had imagined.

This may sound silly to you...
but when you make yourself a promise, waiting so long to fulfill it with anticipation building and conditions you can't completely control...

You never stop looking with a mindful eye
and then,
when the time is right and
conditions couldn't be more perfect...
the promise finds you.

That's heavenly.

May 2014

I have a spot. Facing the treeline behind the barracks. Yesterday, I saw just two. Tonight, I wait. They will come if they choose.