Magic of Summer Nights
By Cait Johnson, author of Earth, Water, Fire, and Air (SkyLight
Paths, 2003).

Do you remember the thrill of being outdoors late on a warm summer night
when you were young? Just because we're grown up now (and can set our own
bedtimes!) doesn't mean we can't reconnect with the gentle adventure, magic
and nature-mystery of summer nights.

We've collected some of our favorite summer nighttime pleasures,
From classics like toasting marshmallows over a campfire or counting
fireflies to a few ideas you may not have thought of. Whether you and your
family are on vacation together or you're home alone, these fun suggestions
are great jumping-off places for your own enjoyment of the brief, precious
nights of summer.

Sky Magic
Pick a cloudless night, take a sleeping bag or blanket, lie on your back,
and look up. Take a guidebook, if you like, and see if you can identify the
major constellations. Different cultures have myths about them that are fun
to read, or you could make up constellation names and invent your own
stories about them. Moon phases are also fun to observe. Did you know that
in China there is no man-in-the-moon but a rabbit, instead? Pick a full-moon
night and try to see it. There are millions of stories about the moon: read
and share a few.

Fire Magic
Campfires are a such a primal pleasure: something about the scent and the
sight of the warm leaping flames spells safety and
Reassurance, a bone-deep ancestral memory. Simply sitting around a fire
gives a sense of bonded community, and becomes the perfect venue for singing
drumming, or storytelling.

And of course you can cook over a fire: besides the classics
(marshmallows or smores), you can also toast bread over the flames or roast
corn or potatoes in the embers. You can also burn a handful of dried herbs
or incense, cedar, sage, juniper, or sweet! Grass, t O honor the earth and
send your gratitude prayers up to the sky.

Gazing into the embers is a time-honored way to relax and still the mind,
and you can see some interesting pictures if you allow you mind and your
inner eye to open.

Animal Magic
If you sit quietly in one place, nocturnal creatures will sometimes show
themselves to you. Fireflies are the easiest to spot (and notoriously
difficult to count!), but nighthawks, owls, and bats as well as raccoons and
opossums may also live in your neighborhood. A flashlight may help you spot
nighttime visitors, and you can increase your chances of a sighting by
leaving food offerings nearby. (When my son was small, an opossum made a
nightly appearance on our deck to eat the cat food we left there. We named
her Lucy because she usually appeared when I Love Lucy came on Nick at Night
and we were thrilled when she eventually brought her mate to share the
feast. We still retain a great fondness for opossums because of our
experiences with Lucy and Ricky.) There is no better way to teach our
children love and respect for wild animals than to quietly observe them.

You can also do a microscosmic exercise: shine your flashlight on a small
patch of ground and see what happens there in the course of a half-hour.
Insects of all descriptions are apt to be very busy right under our noses,
if we only stop to pay attention.

Sound Magic
Listen! Is that a pair of wings beating over our heads? And that
Buzzing, chirping sound--is that a cricket or a grasshopper? Do you hear
thunder in the distance? When we slow down enough to really listen, the
night world comes deeply alive and so do we.