Lights

There is a wall of stringed lights hanging over an entire balcony in an apartment tower across the way, behind a gathering of cedar trees nestled around my home. They are bright, flashy, and when I sit on my balcony, I find myself always staring at them, drawn to their white glow and movement. They bother me sometimes, and I think to myself, “Who would want a barrage of lights glaring back at them all the time?” But late at night, when I’m in the bedroom, the view from the window is pitch black, the trees’ silhouettes lumped into one obscure mass. And I can see inklings of those lights through the feathered branches, like clustered fireflies dancing on a summer night. Seeing lights like that through the darkness gives me hope, and for that, I am grateful. #itsthelittlethings