My Dragonfly - A Summer’s Tale

As we approach the Summer Solstice in Australia, when the earth pauses, releasing her longest outbreath, I reflect on how natures inspires and guides me to slow down, to pause, to become more aligned with her timing.

One of my ways of finding stillness is to step into nature, most often my garden, either putting my hands in the soil, snipping a plant here or there, feeling the warm breeze on my skin, or listening to the deafening sounds of cicadas at dusk. These experiences, and more, slow me down - help me to find my center in my busy world.

I have a beautiful memory of one “Sanctuary of Stillness” moment, when I encountered a little insect being, who showed me how much we are all connected. It was true love.

It was summer, and I was swimming in a beautiful lake in northern N.S.W. This lake is very close to the ocean and is called The Ti-Tree lakes. It was at one time an Aboriginal sacred waterhole for women. The water is red from the sap of the Ti-Trees. I was standing in the water and noticed a little electric blue dragon fly floating on the surface. I thought it was dead and picked it up and placed it on the palm of my hand. It was no more than an inch in length. It was not dead; its wings had become waterlogged. So, it lay on my hand and slowly it recovered. It then stood on its tiny legs and started shaking and preening itself. It was so sweet to watch. Then it stopped and looked at me with those bulbous extra-terrestrial eyes.

That is when the magic happened. We just stared into each other’s eyes, connecting, with a deep sense of honoring one another. I don’t know how long we stared at each other, but it felt like time stopped and we became one. Then the little electric blue dragonfly flew away, skimming across the surface of the water.

I have never forgotten the experience. Since that time, I see dragonflies everywhere and sense they know how much I love them. I feel a dragonfly being is part of my pit crew now. I call him Dragonfly person. Since that experience I have felt this love and protection of the insect world (except for mosquitoes and blow flies, though they are also part of Gaia). That encounter opened something up in me, to protect them or to be a custodian, as insects do need protection from so many obstacles -mainly we human beings.

So, as I step into the Sanctuary of Stillness this Solstice, I will invite into my field the beings of nature – insect, animal and subtle – who always bring me back to my own center of stillness.