Lights on the horizon

It's the middle of June, and already, a phenomenon I've observed every year I've lived in Lancaster County is occurring. I noticed it last night while I was riding my scooter home from work around dusk.

The cornfields on either side of the road were flashing and flickering with millions of little yellow lights. Fireflies seem to abound in the cornfields of Lancaster county. I'm not certain why, but it is beautiful to behold.

I pulled my scooter to a safe place on the side of the road and watched a while, wishing I had a camera capable of capturing the scene. The gentle putt-putt of the engine accenting the sounds of the night.

Rural Lancaster County is so peaceful and idyllic and is, in may ways, out of place. Not ten miles from where I sat, Lancaster City crouched like some noisy urban beast, ready to devour the peace and serenity of its surroundings. Even so, compared to most cities, Lancaster is small and relatively tame. The urban sprawl turns into Suburban sprawl, which suddenly mixes with patchy corn fields and farms, tapering off into farmland for as far as the eye can see.

And at night, in the late spring and summer, that farmland comes alive with lights far more beautiful than any city can produce, flickering and flashing by the millions.