paintball parable

there i was sitting peacefully by the creek as they shot rounds yards from my head. dozens of shots were fired as i meditated near the water. i wondered when one stray shot might wiz by my ear or hit me in the back or head or arm. but i stayed still nonetheless and gleaned from this experience the following lesson.

life is hectic. problems, complications, fights, weariness, and sorrow do not end. they have always been here and always will be until restoration has come in its fullness. to transcend these tumultuous times, we must find reprieve in the midst of them. even though we seek sancturary, we must always remember that we cannot leave the battle behind. too much is at stake to surrender to fantasy or fatigue. so our meditation must be sublime to provide relief from the raucus. but it must also be earthy to remind us of the goodness of creation and the fact that it's worth fighting for.

these truths dawned on me as i arose and asked the neighborhood kids to not shoot me with their paintball guns

Damselfly Chronicles?

Okay, so I finally found on the web, the info I've been gaining from observation. As it turns out, the "dragonflies" I've been watching by the creek are actually called, damselflies, and the species is called Ebony Jewelwing (Calopteryx Maculata). If you're interested, see the link below:

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/ebony_jewelwing.htm

dragonfly chronicles 3 - Gnats and Oil Spills

I retract my comments from a previous post concerning the gnats and their complete uselessness (I believe I called them a Satanic scouge). The other day, I saw a small dragonfly on my screen, so I put my finger out up under it's legs and got it to perch there. I noticed something hanging from it's mouth about as big as it's head. It was a black bug or gnat or some other kind small flying insect. The dragonfly chewed away at it's prey leaving its small legs on my finger as it ate. I thought for sure it would eat maybe half of the bug and then be done, but alas, it ate the entire thing and then flew away.

This got me thinking about my times by the creek. Often I see one the dragonflies swoop down and eat some small white floating particle, but until now I've assumed it was a piece of falling pollen or something else from the tree above. Now I believe these white floaters to be gnats. This has made me reconsider necessity of gnats. They are in fact the bottom wrung of the food chain and are incredibly annoying, but they serve the purpose of food for the dragonfly and probably many other creatures just above them in the circle of life. It reminds me that ecosystems are delicate and even the smallest of insects which may seem to us useless are probably here for a reason perhaps playing important role in the grandscope of environmental health.

Writing this post makes me ponder the current and/or potential disaster still effusing from the Horizon in the Gulf. So many ecosystems have or will be affected by this crisis, and the reduction or loss of even the smallest of species could have devastating effects.

dragonfly chronicles part 2

So, I was wrong about the dragonflies in my last dragonfly post. As I watched them about a week ago I realized that it was in fact the the male who vigorously fluttered his wings and attached his apendage to the female, and the female who lifted hers to the male's thorax to begin the mating process. Another revelation: the females have the white dot on their black wings while the males do not. After I made this discovery, I watched as a male vigorously defended his mate while she laid her eggs. It seems a number of males tried to approach her as she was in the water, but his sheer fury and tenacity sent them flying in other directions everytime. I think his protectiveness may have drawn him another female who perched above him for a while. He eventually followed her a distance away and mated with her too. She flew a couple feet from his first mate to do her egg laying and for a while he defended that ground as well. But alas it was too much of a stretch and the male dragonflies were too plenty, so he settled for defending only his first love. As a result, his mistress didn't get to spend near as much time in water laying and arranging her eggs.

New Favorite Song

To be alone with you
by Sufjan Stevens

I'd swim across Lake Michigan
I'd sell my shoes
I'd give my body to be back again
In the rest of the room

To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you

You gave your body to the lonely
They took your clothes
You gave up a wife and a family
You gave your ghost

To be alone with me
To be alone with me
To be alone with me
You went up on a tree

To be alone with me you went up on a tree

I've never known a man who loved me

dragonfly dreamworld

If you've frequented my blog at all, you'll know that I've been frequenting a spot about a mile from my house. It's where I go to pray, meditate or otherwise just enjoy the natural beauty of Florida. The drgonfly in the picture here is one of the natural species of these particular woods. You see them everywhere. But a few weeks ago, I saw a few of them in the little area where I often spend time. As I looked around I noticed that two of them were on a leaf in front of me mating. The rather remarkable thing about their mating practice is the fact that their bodies make the shape of a heart when they're together. I was fascinated and watched as immediately after they were done, the female (I presume), laid her eggs at the edge of the creek just out reach of the current. She used her apendage to lay them and then move them as she saw fit. The male stayed on a leaf directly above her. At one point he chased off an incoming dragonfly that came close to the female as she messed with her eggs. It was quite something to witness, I must say.

About a week later I went back to the same spot and found that there were about a dozen of these same species of dragonflies. I brought a camera that time and got the photo above. A few days ago I went again (unfortunately without a camera). This time there were a good 20 of them, and I sat observing them for about 45 minutes. My time waiting and observing paid off greatly. I was able to watch 3 different mating sessions from start to finish, and three different egg layings. The dragonflies seemed to be in somewhat of a mating frenzy and didn't mind my presnece at all. When I arrived I found two of them already in the act of mating as I had seem before. But soon others also began. I managed to figure out when they were about to engage by observing the three sessions that played in a similar fashion. The female (I believe) flaps her wings frantically, almost like a hummingbird until she's right in front of the male she chooses. She seems to glimmer and shine as she hovers right in front of him for a few seconds. Then she attaches her appendage to his neck and he curls his around to her thorax area, thus making the heart shape togehter. They mate for about a minute and then the female heads for the water to lay the eggs.

Amazing as this expereince was, it wasn't over with my observation. As I started to get up to leave, I placed my hand on a rock and a different species of dragonfly landed on me. It stayed for about twenty minutes just sitting there, or when it left, it did so for only a couple seconds and then came back. It was quite a remarkable experience - numinous even.