Some of my best and worst memories come from living the first 11 years of my life in the Philippines. I was an only child to my mother until she remarried later when we moved the States. While I had a multitude of neighborhood kids and a cousin who were my playmates, I was still the only child in my house with too much time to spend satisfying rampant curiosities.
I am grateful that I did live in a tropical place where a myriad of plants and insects surrounded me. The bright colors of flowers and dark green glossy leaves from trees and bushes were painted for me most everywhere I turned. The diamondlike grains of sand played peek-a-boo in between the growing blades of grass on the ground. The tropical breezes would lift strands of my long dark brown hair near my face like little banners. The sun seemed like the pupil of God's eye while the cerulean blue sky his iris which revealed everything and shared his warmth on my skin while I made my way around the yard chasing and catching dragonflies. I must have been between the ages of 7 and 9. It was idyllic.
My dragonflies were everywhere it seemed. I used to catch them with small cello bags and sometimes small clear glass jars. I would hold them by their wings and stare for an eternity, imprinting them on my psyche. Some had avocado green bodies with black stripes and others had iridescent purplish blue bodies. Their wings were capillaries of black that actually breathed if you really looked at them - their long tails breathed, too. Watching them expand and contract held me mesmerized. Their eyes seemed too big for their bodies while their legs tickled my child size fingers when I brushed them. If I was lucky, I would catch one that had eggs on her belly. I was fascinated because she would hold onto them dearly when I tried to touch them.
Children are often times are blessed with ignorance and naivete. In this case I was grateful since I used to tear some of the dragonflies' wings and keep them in the jar while I made paper wings for them using lined school notebook paper. There would be a slit in the middle of the ribbon where I would insert what wings were left and I would gently spread them over the paper. I would then carry them in the open yard and throw them in the sky so they could fly away...but they didn't. They fell among the blades of grass. I found them only by the telltale white paper ribbons that were supposed to be their new wings.
I didn't give up. I would fling them again in the air where we would play the same game over and over. I would get disappointed and I couldn't fathom why they wouldn't fly. Somehow I did know why but I wouldn't let myself let the teasing mist of darkness invade my thoughts. I would end up slipping their new wings off and I would gently set them either on a flower or hide them in a blade of grass where they would magically have flown away when I tried to find them again the next time.
Since then my dragonflies have forgiven me and have become harbingers of good luck or a message of my beloved mother thinking of me as if to say, "Smile honey...only good things today".
On the evening of November 21st last year, a giant dragonfly was on the number plate on my door. It's wings spanning horizontally on the whole plate. I was in awe and knew that something really good was coming. I felt it in my soul. I will never forget the feeling as long as I live. My winged visitor stayed for a long time even when let myself inside my apartment and going back out later checking on it. I took a photo on my phone, but it is too dark to make out.
I did go out that evening, but when I returned it was gone only to be found on the wall across the way opposite my door before I closed it. It demanded to be recognized. I thanked it for visiting and went inside. Since then only good things keep coming around. I even found a new playmate to start chasing new species of dragonflies on his island. That will be fun!
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