On Fireflies and Stars: Envisioning Luminescent Beacons for Advancing Nursing and Rogerian Science (Imagination Column) (Column‪)‬

"We are light made solid." Anonymous It is May in Iowa. Manifestations of summer are emerging. The rolling countryside hills of deep dark earth are being tilled, transforming winter's corn stubble into gardenlike rows and rows of corn. The thick stands of oak, red elm, hickory, and cottonwoods are spreading leaves turning the grey of winter into the sparkling green of spring. The calls of goldfinches, cardinals, warblers, blue jays, and sparrows break the hush of leaves blowing in the breeze. The first spring rains transform the yellow grass into a carpet of glowing deep green. Native prairie grasses begin their ascent and soon fields will be shimmering with the purple coneflowers, blooming butterfly weed, shooting stars, little bluestem grass, blueeyed grass, blazing stars, lavender spikes, white balls of rattlesnake master, golden rays of black-eyed Susan, and Pasque flowers waving and hissing in the summer winds.