You’re standing at the kitchen sink, washing up a few things, and you hear a strange sound.  You turn off the water and listen. There it is again! Something must be out on the patio. You peer through the window and look left and right, trying to locate the source of the strange noise. Is it on the patio roof? Or in the neighbor’s yard? What IS that sound? Like scuffling, but different. Not a cat, and not a bird.

Suddenly you see a large dragonfly. It is under the skylight, and appears to be trying to fly through it. Over and over it slams its twirling wings into the plexiglass and bounces back again, attempting to escape. You stop washing dishes and call to your husband in the next room. All you hear in response is: “Broom.” You go out the back door, grabbing the broom on your way.

When you reach the skylight, the dragonfly is still plunging itself upward and getting nowhere, still futilely trying to leave. As gently as you can, you engage broom to insect. It connects, and you carry the grounded dragonfly on the end of the broom out from under the roof, talking to it in a soothing voice. Instantly, it disembarks and flies away.

That was pretty simple. Saving the life of a dragonfly may not have been heroic, but it was the right thing to do. Repeatedly banging yourself into an obstacle can be frustrating, if not deadly, for dragonflies as well as other creatures. There just might be a lesson here.