Lessons from the Dragonfly

One Core Value about prosperity is that for each person and each situation there is a perfect balance between committed action and flowing with ease and grace. Of course it takes spiritual maturity and the wisdom that comes along with this maturity to discern that perfect balance point.

Today, it is a beautiful spring day and I spent some time working in our yard. I was weeding and heard this odd buzzing sound. I was drawn to it and saw that a large and beautiful dragonfly was caught up in the deer netting we put out over our blueberry bushes. The sound I heard was the terrified and furious beating of its wings as it tried to escape from the tangled netting. I could see immediately that there was no way the dragonfly could escape alone and so began to untangle the netting so that the dragonfly could fly free. However, each time I moved the netting, the dragonfly accelerated its own attempts to get free and instead got itself more entrapped.

Standing there, I wished that the dragonfly could remain calm just for a second. Then I would be able to free it easily. Unfortunately, it simply could not resist flying deeper into the netting each time I began to unwrap it. The dragon fly had no capacity that I could see for spiritual discernment about when to flow with ease and grace. Instead it seemed to me that it was driven by fear and frustration. Perhaps the dragon fly was not really frustrated but that the sound of its wings beating a million times a second sounded like frustration to me. (I was unable to find reliable research about how many beats per second a dragonfly flaps its wings, but I know it is a lot)

The one great gift that all dragonflies have is two pairs of wings that beat independently of one another. They are by far Mother Nature’s best aerodynamic animal or insect. They can fly in any direction, even backwards. They can accelerate their speed in an instant and then decelerate just as suddenly. They can change direction in as little as three beats of their wings. Thus, their maneuverability in the air is extraordinary.

Another magnificent attribute of the dragonfly is its acute vision. Their eyes have 30,000 lenses and they can see in 360 degrees very clearly. They are especially great at detecting motion. Unfortunately, for this dragonfly that was caught in the netting, the combination of its two greatest gifts were ensnaring it and keeping it ensnared. Each time I moved the netting, the dragonfly would in a millisecond spot the change and then instantly aerodynamically adjust its position and press up against the netting even harder. All that did was continue its getting caught in the webbing.

It was amazing to watch this beautiful creature force itself further and further into captivity. Fortunately, compared to this dragonfly, one of humankind’s greatest gifts is problem identification and solving. Using my human skills I could see the problem, diagnose it and solve it in an instant. Using my adaptive reasoning I was able to move the netting in such a way that eventually the dragonfly got free.

The prosperity value holds that for each person and each situation there is a perfect balance between committed action and flowing with ease and grace, (In this case insects count as people). In the situation with the dragonfly and the netting, the logical thing for me to want the dragonfly to do was to just be calm for a second so I could easily and gracefully move the netting and release the insect. But looking at this situation more deeply, if the dragonfly had not been committed to action in buzzing its wings, and instead rested quietly on a twig, I would never have heard it. It would still be sitting there calmly until it perished. Only by its committed action was it able to get free.

Even though it looked to me in the moment like the dragonfly’s committed action was a hindrance to its objective of disentangling itself from the netting, in this case it was the committed action that resulted in success. This brings me back around to the main topic, that there is a lot of discernment needed to determine when committed action is warranted and when surrender to ease and grace is called for.

Just like I initially did with the dragonfly, people judging from the outside are often projecting their own issues into their interpretation of what is going on. Thus their perspective about the balance point between ease and grace and committed action may not lead to the perfect balance point for you. That is not to say that seeking wise counsel about your actions is not often warranted- it is imperative. But go to someone who is not activated by your situation, who is able to be discerning and give you real disparity and insight.