285: Summer seduction

A hazy summer day, somewhere in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Sultry, steaming, sweltering … Slow down.  Or stop.  It’s time to shed ambition and expectation, along with commutes, clothing, cellular phones, calendars.  Now our wants seem to diminish.  Is it because our needs are met?  A shady nook, a cold drink, a cool breeze — whether indoors or out.  A respite from the rigors of the day.  Time off for good behavior.  Summer is not so much a season as a melody, that tune of contentment we hum as the days begin to beautifully blur.

~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

The dragonflies and damselflies are working their summer magic on me.  Yesterday I stood under the shade of the willow trees watching them flit and fly and dance, occasionally landing on the grasses at the edge of the pond.  Summer is their season.  Dragonflies and damselflies are cold blooded and need the warmth and light of the summer sun.  In his book Animal Speak, Ted Andrews mentions that for those with a dragonfly or damselfly totem, “spending time outside in the sun near fresh water sources will be beneficial for restoring and changing health conditions for the better…”

The dragonfly and damselfly reflect and work with the sun and light.  The light changes throughout the day.  The dragonfly and damselfly undergo their own transformations…  Dragonflies remind us that we are light and can reflect the light in powerful ways if we choose to do so.  ‘Let there be light’ is the divine prompting to use the creative imagination as a force within your life.  This is part of what dragonflies and damselflies teach us.

Life is never quite the way it appears, but it is always filled with light and color.  Dragonfly can help you to see through your illusions and thus allow your own light to shine forth.  Dragonfly brings the brightness of transformation and the wonder of colorful new vision.

~ Ted Andrews, Animal Speak

During the early part of the winter months, when the cold really set in, I was not always happy about having to step outside for 30 minutes a day.  The cold would bite and sting.  I’d spend a good part of the time shivering and wanting to be back indoors.  Gradually I acclimated and the cold no longer seemed so bad.  I’d still feel it, but winter’s beauty had ways of distracting me from the cold.

Summer is starting to do the same thing, seducing me into starting to like the season if not yet love it.  I don’t even mind the heat and humidity so much, especially when I’m standing in the shade of the willows watching the dragonflies shimmer in the sunlight.

Today I watched the fish swimming in the pond.  The water is amazingly clear, and the pond is practically bursting with fish.  The sunlight hitting the bluegills is almost as pretty as sunlight on dragonfly wings.

I found a different dragonfly yesterday.  A red one.  The photos I got were not very good, but this one isn’t too bad:

It is a beautiful summery day here in the Bogs.  The sky is a lovely shade of blue, the breeze is just enough to dissipate some of the heat, and the air smells warm and sunny.

Today's view of the pond.

The vegetables in the garden are coming along nicely.  We had salads made with lettuces from the garden last night, and will have some Swiss chard with our dinner tonight.  We’ve had to water the garden lately.  We could use a rainy day or two, to help things along.  Even the grass, which was growing like gangbusters during the rainy spring, has slowed down its growth and is beginning to brown.

Sunlight in the corn

Summer is winning me over.  It may not be love yet, but I am liking it.  I am learning a few of summer’s lessons:   to slow down a little or, if the occasion calls for it, stop.  It is, I’m finding, the best way to enjoy summer, at a slow pace or at no pace at all while enjoying the shade, the breeze, and the dance of the dragonflies.

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