Living Out Loud

Anna Quindlen offers a collection of engaging, fresh, and funny essays about growing up, becoming a parent, spirituality, and more.

"The lightning bugs are back. They are small right now, babies really, flying low to the ground as the lawn dissolves from green to black in the dusk. There are constellations of them outside the window; on, off, on, off. At first the little boy cannot see them; then, suddenly, he does. 'Mommy, it's magic,' he says.

"This is why I had children; because of the lightning bugs."