There is symbolism in all that surrounds us. Nothing new there. Native and indigenous people have known and worked with this for thousands of years. Animals and plants, flora and fauna are wrinkles of nature that can hold deeper meaning.
Dragon flies have held special interest for me. When I was little, they would scare me because of their sheer size and my accompanying fear that they might bite me, or worse, carry me away. Of course, I now know they do not bite and are actually harbingers of what's to come for me. So in a sense, they have indeed carried me away.
But dragon flies have intrigued many cultures and been the subject of their mythologies. Chinese believe they are a sign of happiness and harmony; to Native Americans a sign of happiness; the Japanese Samurai so respected them that they were adopted as their symbol of victory. Folklore has them stitching up wounds on snakes, being able to sense bad souls from good, and being sent directly from Satan himself to create bedlam amongst humans.
Perhaps most importantly, dragon flies symbolize change, from an internal, introspective perspective. This interpretation most likely comes from the fact that a dragon fly has 360 degree eyesight, which allows it to see everything around it, symbolically representing one's internal or third eye, which allows us humans to see all that is unseen as well.
This particular dragon fly above, or darning needle as we used to call it when we were kids, alighted on my car antenna one day last summer when I was visiting my brother. In retrospect, it would prove to be a trip that changed our relationship forever.
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
-- William Blake, Auguries of Innocence
To read my Erie Times-News blog, click on www.goerie.com/blogs/gutcheck. And for this week's column, click here. http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110428/LIFESTYLES0605/304289982/-1/LIFESTYLES
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