Dragonfly

If wanting my animals to live long lives

means I live in fear of time stealing them away,

then that is not the way I choose to love.

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If I can do everything right, by my own understanding…

If I can learn more, grow wiser, make better choices, feed them well, pay attention, and still know that time will one day carry them across the threshold, then I choose a different relationship with time altogether.

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We often speak of length as though it were the greatest measure of a life… and though I'm not saying it isn't... is it?

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A marriage with time causes us to fixate on loss and call it love.

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A fear that causes us to hold on tightly… if we could just prevent enough, control enough, anticipate enough, learn enough, do enough, be enough, maybe we could bargain for more of it.

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Fear has a way of narrowing the very life it hopes to protect.

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It creeps in through putting up fences or walls, taming the joyful spirit, denying the extra treat, putting a stop to the harmless habit or behavior that simply... makes a life feel like its own.

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So if that’s the game time plays, I’ll choose another.

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One where my animals know the warmth of the sunshine, joy in their bellies, and contentment that spills through the beauty of their bodies.

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One where they hear my voice often enough that it becomes part of the landscape they call home.

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If life is a game, and time is the keeper,

Perhaps the point was never to stay on the field the longest.

Perhaps it was simply to play.

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The dragonfly lives with the sun,

and grass, and flowers.

She does not care for the snow.

She doesn’t even live long enough

to notice it coming.

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Shayleigh & the dragonfly collective -- Can you hear your animal's messages for you here?