I noticed the little fellow the other day on my way down the dock as I was heading off to work. He followed me again today so I decided to tuck my camera in my purse just in case this wasn't a coincidence, sure enough he followed me. In his defense, I am pretty adorable and smell like roses :). Maybe he thinks I am a flower, which would be rather cute. On the other hand, I am talking about a BUG, a flying bug! Even worse than that, I am flattered he is following me. Hmm, this gal is getting stranger and stranger by the day, could this be early symptoms of senility?
On that same note, I have notice that I am increasingly becoming more and more of a dreamer. I give gravity and great meaning to the most mundane and innocent of things, like a fish who hangs out near my boat or even a little dragonfly following me. I am known to smile up at the sky and the sun, just close my eyes and tip my head back and kinda soak it all in. It is not unusual for me to stop in the middle of a parking lot and enjoy a beautiful cloud or smile and say hi to a little butterfly fluttering by. This behavior of mine is, so far, mainly localized to my marina and around my boat. I haven't started picking up cool rocks on the side of the road or giving a tree a great big hug, but don't put it past me neither. I feel connected to the wildlife around the boat, more than I have ever in the past. I see our little interactions as gifts, sent by God. But these gifts are not exclusive to me, I think my little friends would be happy to say Hi to anyone passing by. I think God would love to dazzle all of us. I wonder why more people don't stop and see what an amazing world this is. :).
This is the little guy, I live at the end of this rather long pier, he followed me all that way.
Here is a close up of him,I call him Harpy, I assume its a him, be a bit unsettling if I was being followed by a girl dragonfly! :-)
A dragonfly helped me rebuild an old vw engine ya know. Now wait, before you seal the commitment papers to the sanitarium let me explain. I was 23 or 24. I had just bought a VW van from an ex boyfriend, yeah I was a clever one. The van threw a rod about a month later. My ex agreed to help me rebuild the bad engine, I guess his guilty conscience got the best of him. Anyways, I rebuilt the engine and got it back in the van. The big moment came to start her up, I had worked so hard on it and was feeling quite proud of myself. Well, I started the engine and it ran so rough, something was very wrong. I quickly shut the engine down and proceeded to tear it down and carefully put it back together again. My confidence was shot and I relied on my friend watching over me. So we got the engine back in the van, and I go and sit in the driver seat, take a deep breath, and turn over the engine...The same horrible noise. I shut the engine down and just stared out the windshield frustrated and in complete dispare. Why did I think I could do such a big job? who did I think I was? I am no mechanic, I am just a young girl who couldn't afford to mess this job up. I sat there in the drivers seat, smelling of grease and gasoline, and let those negative thoughts roll over me like big black waves...
Then, a little inch long lime green dragonfly landed on the tip of my nose and looked right at me! As God as my witness, he stared right at me. I was so startled I just stared back. We were eye to eye (s) and he had a firm grip on my nose and just peered at me. He had a bright lime green body with iridescent purple wings, he was so beautiful. After a few moments he flew away and I sat there feeling a bit stunned. Then I leaned my head back and laughed, I laughed from the very depths of my soul. I felt the world come back into view, I felt those negative thoughts wash away with every teary laugh, and even more amazing is all my doubt flew away too, the moment that little green dragonfly perched himself on my nose.
I got out of the van and went back to the engine and looked again, turns out I had the spark plugs wire (thingy) all wrong. We fixed the mistake and my engine started up with a purr and a sigh of relief.
I was ready to walk away from that van in frustration, I was going to quit, but for a little green dragonfly. God sends us little messages of encouragements, and the messengers can come in the most surprising form :-).
This picture is as close to him as I could find, my little guy was much cuter and his wings were sparkly clear purple (if that makes any sense).
By the by, my nose is not that big. At least not to be considered a landing site, though my brother with his barbie doll nose would beg to differ:).
2 comments:
Great post! You are so correct about the gifts surrounding us every day. I feel lucky to be one of those that stops and appreciates it, as you do! As they say, the best things in life are free.
Your mother agrees 100 percent!
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