During the fifteen minutes I watched this dragonfly and taking about fifty pictures during that time, I picked three of those pictures, one from the beginning of my observation, one in between and one at the end. All the there pictures looked similar in the way the wings were positioned in the body. I did not notice any body movement. The dragonflies are known to be still for long time in their resting mode.
That is when, I remembered the statue game that I used to play with our children when they were young. The beginning of a retreat I attended once started with an exercise of being still in the body for twenty minutes in order to become silent inward.
The stillness of the body and silence of the mind are interconnected!
Both are not easy to practice. I find myself struggling with it often.
However the message the dragon fly gave me that morning was the need to be still in the body to become inwardly restful and be quiet. The quietness of the soul springing from the silence of minnd is what offers refreshment and renewal. It is akin to drinking a glass of water when parched!
The human soul's ambience is interior silence. Our soul longs to return to its habitat. The resistance to be silent is stronger than the urge to be silent.
I felt how I make my soul parched of silence amidst the traffic in mind!
Eve the night is not restful as dreams and short wakefulness make sleep shallow and not restorative!
I returned thinking of the contradictions I carry within myself! I look for activities when I am awake and not nourish my soul to be Godward in silence!
A dragonfly became a messenger of how I live! A gentle way of making me pause and revise my attitude to work and inward rest, stillness and silence!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
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