Wisdom from a Damselfly
It’s spring in the desert…and that means it’s finally warm enough for the first swims in the magical creeks that give the Verde (“Green”) Valley its name.
I am blessed to have Oak Creek just a short walk away from my home…and on Sunday, I went for the ceremonial “first swim of the season.”
The cottonwood trees are “snowing,” creating a magical fairyland of pollen in the creek and in the air. As I waded into the cold water, I noticed the body of a blue pond damselfly floating on the surface.
I picked her up, and held her gently in my hands…at first to see if she may still be alive, and then, when I realized she was dead, I couldn’t put her down. I looked at her beautiful form, and asked her spirit if I could communicate with her.
Immediately I felt the beautiful, pure presence of this wonderful being filling me, surrounding me as I held her still form. She infused me with her essence…a translucent, radiant wash of light, clarity, and sweetness.
I wondered about her experience in her body, coming into form for such a short time. Pond damselflies lay their eggs in the water, and then emerge in the larval stage to the stream bank, where they then transform into their winged bodies. Their life span is a few weeks, during which they mate, lay their eggs back in the water, and then die. I’ve always loved them, and have been fascinated by the experience of being born in the water and then emerging to fly.
As I considered all of this, the damselfly in spirit transmitted her experience to me in a complete wash of feeling and understanding:
We are spirit touching briefly info form.
She had no awareness of “time” or having lived a “short” life in the way that we humans perceive lifespan and time. She had full and complete understanding of herself as a spiritual being, coming into form for a time, and then returning to her life in spirit. The experience of physical life and the body was a focusing of her energy and light for a time into form, as a way of experiencing energy and an experience of life infused by her spirit.
With gratitude, I laid her body gently back in the water, and watched it float downstream, as I pondered her wisdom.
We are spirit touching briefly into form.
Our task as humans is to remember this. How often we forget. So many times our beautiful animal friends remind us…of our essential nature as spirit, much greater than our physical lives and experiences. We bring our energy to our lives in our bodies as a way to focus our light, to learn, to grow, to discover. And then we return to that which we never really left…to spirit, to oneness.
