Calm.

Yesterday, after a full creative day at my bench, I took on the task of five off-island errands.  Which meant organizing myself for a ferry trip and getting to five establishments before their night time close.  Since I started this venture at the early end of a normal work day – I felt a little “behind” before I started.

The lesson of the dragonfly has inserted itself into my consciousness.  Good thing for me.  I could FEEL myself flapping, unproductively, like a housefly having to flap those wings 600 times a minute in order to sustain its flight.  I was able to picture the beauty of the dragonfly, take three, deep purposeful breaths and calm my own wing flapping down to the more tolerable thirty flaps a minute.

Five errands equaled five hours.  I arrived home calmly, attitude fully intact and happy to have accomplished each thing I had set out to do.  I had to adjust my plan and map several times within that five hour period.  In that – the dragonfly continues to be a modern marvel and model.  In spite of its primordial roots, its practice is so very relevant to the way I live each day.  Able to competently and flexibly change direction.  No flap – no fuss.

I was grateful as I pulled into the driveway of my home at dark o’thirty, that I had listened to the dragonfly’s message of intentional purpose and calm.