DRAGONFLY SPIRIT

Dragonfly at the Door, Jamestown UMC, NC

I was volunteering with our Shepherd’s Team and working with our Security Guard, Glen, the first thing this morning as we were welcoming and helping folks arrive at our JUMC back entrance by the parking lot.  The two large doors with brass door handles have been decorated with large artificial wreaths.  As I opened one of the doors for a worshiper, I suddenly noticed something out of the ordinary clinging to the wreath on the opposite door.  Closer inspection revealed a motionless bright green dragonfly holding onto a couple stems! 

It appeared that the dragonfly had possibly spent the night in the shelter of the circle drive overhang and found a secure home on the door wreath.  A closer look indicated slight movements of the dragonfly’s head with the large compound eyes looking straight into my eyes.  Dragonflies have excellent vision and their panoramic perspectives are supported by far superior capabilities to see more colors and even ultraviolet light.  Although they have six legs, they cannot walk, but their two pairs of transparent wings give them great maneuverability.

It's been said that seeing a dragonfly could be a sign and message from your angels as they encourage us to transform and become something magnificent.  This remarkable insect that has been around for 300 million years reminds us that hope and infinite possibilities await us!  It lives most of its life as a nymph and only matures into a flying insect for just a limited time, but fulfills its destiny in the process. 

Coincidentally, I had just sent an email to our Sunday class that our first session of the new season would involve our input to a new Vision Team.  They’re inviting input about how we could make changes to proceed on a number of issues to share the Good News of God’s love for His creation!  Perhaps our dragonfly’s visit was perfectly timed for us.

In spite of many folks coming and going that morning and our pointing out its presence, our messenger stayed on the artificial stem for about thirty minutes.  It was then prompted to just move over to the center of the matching-colored wreath.  We observed our mystery visitor remaining there for another thirty minutes as we were called inside for assistance.  When we returned, the dragonfly had vanished.  

 "Dragonflies are known to have curiosity and a friendliness that offers a blueprint for being brave and exploring possibilities. If you open your heart to them, a visit from a dragonfly can offer not just enchantment but even inspiration to live your best life and take bold next steps."

SIMPLE REMINDERS

 

Note Pad, Jamestown NC

A marriage is a partnership between two soulmates as they both navigate their way through a shared lifetime.  For some like my neighbors that journey can last eighty years or half that time for my wife Karen and me.  She departed this mortal life sixteen years ago.

It should be no secret to anybody that making a lifetime partnership work takes commitment and work.  It doesn’t simply glide along without any bumps along the road.  And there are times of stress and tribulations where the little things can become irritable.  And it’s so easy to look back on those things with incredulous wonder as to how they were even considered a bother.

Karen and I spent many hours shopping in malls and quaint little gift shops browsing for something in particular and nothing in particular.  On many such occasions, Karen would spot a set of note pads that were the personification of the Holy Grail.  And I would spot her purchasing them before I could sound the alarm reminding her that we already had cornered the market on note pads and amassed a lifetime’s supply!  Those small purchases really didn’t amount to as much of a fuss that triggered a response from me.  After all, she wasn’t sitting at home and acquiring large blocks of Enron stock. 

A few years ago, I rounded up all the unused note pads scattered in drawers and shelves around the house and consolidated them in my office.  And every day since then I have been drawing from the cache and using them for grocery lists, note taking, weekly golf pairing lists, passwords, increasing reminders, etc.  And every time I use one of the “lifetime note pads” it reminds me of her.  So, it seems my misplaced objections were actually priceless, simple reminders of her for the future.

"Grief is a giant neon sign, protruding through everything, pointing everywhere, broadcasting loudly, 'Love was here.'

In the finer print, quietly, 'Love still is'."

 ~Heidi Priebe

TAKE FIVE

Porsche Boxster S, Jamestown, NC

'57 Corvette

Dave Brubeck's quartet originally recorded the jazz classic "Take Five" in 1959. I was still a lowly student with maybe two pennies to rub together on occasion. But my buddies and I would drag the gut in our American Graffiti central Kansas hometown and go with the flow of that consummate cruisin' music. I always dreamed of cruisin' to Dave's anthem in an appropriate sports car as it was surely intended, but there was no discretionary cash for such an extravagance. I just watched classic '57 Corvettes cruisin' on the roads and lived vicariously through the experiences of the older guys as they related them to me. Then as life moved along and I could actually afford a "Take Five" sports car, it was never really very practical, which was fine at the time. But my bucket list always contained the dream. 

Now it's crossed off the list. And taking five couldn't have been sweeter than it was out on North Carolina state highway 421 with Dave's classic streaming on the CD and Paul Desmond’s mesmerizing alto sax wafting over the roll bars and out into the Carolina blue sky.