~Dragonflies~

So I have a thing with dragonflies...I always seem to attract them for some reason. In our last house a few years back, I found one on its back in a stale pot of water on my stove (yes, yuck) and I got it out and saved its life by carefully drying its wings off with a toothpick and blowing on its wings while separating them...I let it go in my garden and wondered about it over the next few days and if it was still around or not...and there it was in my garden area. Later on a couple of days later, it had somehow found its way into my garage and was perched on the wall in there, as I had been still wondering about it. Strange? Bizarre, you ask? I didn't think so; I realized the connection we have with everything that is on this earth, that we are connected with the spirits of other living things, and this dragonfly experience solidified this very thing to me.

The picture above is a beautiful BIG dragonfly that was perched on the stone arch of our house...my hubby Jason actually saw it and told me to come and check it out. So when I got out there and realized how BIG it really was, I got out the ladder and climbed up to get a better look. What I found were some amazing markings, almost like an American-Indian design or something similar. It let me get really close and I was even able to touch it...there is just something so peaceful, beautiful and reverent about these insects, and I absolutely adore them.

Then last week, when it got really cold outside, I happened to peer over our back deck into the backyard, and I noticed there was a dragonfly that was perched on the stucco below our deck, with its wings spread out against the house. I tried a couple of methods to try and get it so I could bring it inside; I knew it would die if it were left out, as the temps were close to freezing. It seemed to be frozen stuck to the house and I wasn't even sure if it was alive. I almost had hold of it, when it dropped to the ground, so I ran downstairs and out back to pick it up and bring it inside. It felt pretty stiff and brittle, and like I said, didn't know if it was alive. But I kept it in my hands and slowly it seemed to literally 'thaw out' and come alive again, it was such a cool experience! Then it started to warm its wings up by fluttering them and I could feel the air against my skin as it was doing this. Well, eventually it took flight and started flying through my kitchen, bouncing off of the ceiling wall, when it finally came to rest of the floor by my bathroom, and my kitties were in full force going after it, trying to catch hold of it. So I figured this wasn't a good situation if I wanted to keep this dragonfly alive; so I found a wire wastebasket that I picked up at dollar tree which had open spaces all around, so I figured I could put the dragonfly inside of it and it would be able to get air, and be protected my my hunter kitties! I gave it a drop of water by dipping a toothpick into some water, and it drank it up. It was really cute watching it open its mouth, they have cute little faces if you get close enough to see them!

We kept it overnight and it was still alive the next day, which I was definitely happy about. Later on as my boys and I were checking on it, I noticed it kept warming up its wings as if to take flight, and I decided I needed to let it out and go on its way...it actually had turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day and I figured it was better if it could try and find food or water and let nature take its course, or keep it inside where it would be 'safe', but wouldn't have access to food or sunlight. So I let it go and off it went into the sunshine, and I was glad to have been able to give it that extra day to live...and it was a cool experience to have it as our adopted 'pet' for a day, too :)

Here is the dragonfly warming up its wings

Here it is in the wire basket house we gave it for the night :)

The day we let it back outside

Cute little face :)