Saturday, June 26, 2010

Ode to the Dragonfly

Not long after returning from St Louis in March 2010...this dragonfly appeared on the side of our house late one night...I had my camera with me and snapped a photo.  It gave me incredible peace to see it there...I thought of my sister-in-law Janice...she loved dragonflies...her daughter Maggie got a tattoo of dragonflies that represented the members of her family...I read on my niece Emily's blog her recent encounter with a dragonfly...I believe in signs too.

DRAGONFLY SYMBOLISM [found on the internet]

For as many cultural meanings there are for Dragonflies, there are just as many symbol meanings of the strong winged insect. The main symbolism are renewal, positive force and power of life in general with a sense of self that comes with maturity. The Dragonfly is a creature of the wind so it's only fitting that it represents change. They skitter across the water surface implying that our deeper thoughts are surfacing. We are reminded that when our deeper thoughts rise we must also pay close attention to what is deeper than what's on the surface.

The Dragonfly's colors are a result of reflecting the power of light so they are associated with color magic or an illusion in causing others only to see what you want them to see. They remind us that we are made of light and we can reflect light in powerful ways if we choose to. They symbolize going past self created illusions that limit our growing and changing and being a creature of water they carry a symbol of dreaming and thoughts.

The most popular answer of dragonfly symbolism is the sense of self that comes with maturity and there's a strong link to them and butterflies since they both represent change. Dragonflies are a creature that you learn to appreciate as you age and look more deeply at your life, which is where the link to change and self appreciation comes in. As we age we don't just see the surface of things, we start to pick apart our lives and see more meaning in things. No matter what symbol you see in the insect, the fact is that the dragonfly lives a short life and lives it's life to the fullest which is the strongest lesson we can learn from them overall.

3 comments:

  1. thanks so much for sharing this! It's funny. I just had my desktop background on my computer as a picture from Amy... which is actually a picture from her trip to Australia.. the one with the sign "you only live once" I just loved it. However, now it's the photo of the dragonfly.

    wow, i actually just finished reading the whole thing. that was really beautiful.

    :) thanks again!

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  2. LOVE the symbolism you found. amazing how much it applies.

    miss you!

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