The day at the beach was fairly non-descript. Partly sunny. Partly cloudy. Folks splashing around. Kids dunking one another. Horse flies fiendishly lurking and hovering over unsuspecting adults and children alike.
But above the din of humanity and horse flies there was a silent presence.
Dragonflies.
They too, hovered and danced and made great efforts to consume every last mosquito within a mile radius...approximately. One could only hear them when they swerved out of the way of feverishly flapping folks.
As husband and I sat and viewed this site, fairly close to the water's edge,we happened to notice something unusual going on in the water. It appeared one great, lovely Dragonfly had ditched and was being tossed to and fro in the ongoing waves. He (she) appeared to be in a sad but merciful death roll at the mercy of each passing, frothing wave.
Then we saw it. Another of his species did what looked to be an attempted rescue. He hovered over the one rolling in the water and got hold of him momentarily. A great clashing, rasping sound of wings was heard even from our vantage point but alas, the fellow dragonfly was just too much for the rescuer and he aborted his mission, leaving the poor #1 dragonfly flailing about as he waited for his certain demise.
"Dear", said I, "can you go pick that poor Dragonfly up out of the water? Perhaps he could be revived!"
Husband wasn't too sure about it. I mean, one dragonfly amongst thousands...and he most likely was dead by now anyway.
We sat and watched. I told him I could hear him flailing about!!!! After considerable time, husband walked over to the water's edge, walked up to his knees and plucked the poor fellow out from his certain watery grave.
They sat there together. One human rescuer. One wet dragonfly...barely alive.
The dragonfly began to move bit by bit. First wiping the water away from his enormous eyes and swivel head. I do believe he wanted to see where he was and who it was that took such care to rescue him.
The sun warmed him. The breeze allowed his wings to dry ever-so-slowly.
They sat there together....man and beasty. Once husband even got to chatting with the poor fellow. During the conversation, husband noticed that his bottom section of his front left leg had been lopped off. Would he even have a chance of living without a foot? We weren't a "Dr. McIntosh, Entomologist", that's for sure!!!
Husband persevered, holding him gently on his hand, whispering who knows what into his senses.
The wings began to dry. His legs began to move. He wasn't a lost cause.
What happened in that half hour, between man and dragonfly, will forever remain a mystery. One part of creation connecting closely with another in ways that one can only wonder about.
It was an engrossing scene for me. The more I watched and waited, the more I realized how each of us in God's eyes, is beautiful and special...because God made it so....and each creature, human, or otherwise, is worth rescuing, worth saving, worth everything.
Dragonfly eventually gave himself a stretch and a bit of a shake, testing his wings a bit to see if all the water had evaporated. It was only a brief moment before he took that lovely, delicate, blue and green body up and into the air, but I thought I heard him whisper "thanks", as he sailed up and into the cosmos, alive and well once more with his own kind.
It was a life-changing experience for me, be it ever so small.
Lots of other exciting things happened too, on the beach, but we'll save that for another time:)
2 comments:
What a great story. Reminds me of when we were first married and we helped Marc's dad who was taking care of a pig farm while the farmer was away. There was a sick pig and I sang hymns to it as it lay alone in a pen while Marc and his dad worked. It was a very special moment. The pig farmer shot the pig when he returned later that week...
Beautiful.
It's so amazing to have these moments where we recognize the consciousness of other creatures, that there's more to them than meets the eye.
I'm moving closer and closer to becoming a vegetarian, which is not that surprising, I suppose, but a decision I never would've thought I'd ever make a few years ago!
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