Practical Magic Summer Series: Part Two 🦋
tiny moments of magic
I'm outside in the garden this morning, sitting on my blanket, having a little coffee and breakfast al fresco style. The air is thick and muggy. June in Texas is always a little bit temperamental; either it gets too hot too quickly, or it's tornado season. Rarely is there an in between.
Today seems to be that rare day, and so I'm out here embracing it, enjoying the eighty-degree weather before the impending rain comes and watching my dog play in the dirt where the grass won't grow. The blackberries on the bush I planted last year are ripening, and I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. A hundred years ago, it probably seemed pretty obvious that growing food in the yard was, well, a pretty good, if not the best option for acquiring such food, but that is a lesson I am just now learning as I enter my thirties.
I pick up a basket that I bought for a dollar at the thrift store last week for this very purpose, and start to pick the ripe blackberries, examining each one for bite marks or insects before plopping them into the basket with their companions. The duds go to the aforementioned dog, who is as delighted as I am about the blackberry bush. The fur around his snout, usually a dark cream color, is stained purple from our breakfast.
We have another companion this morning. A gorgeous dragonfly rests on an upper vine, tense and watching our movements, but not afraid enough to abandon his feast of flowers and fruits. Its outer shell is the most electric blue I have ever seen in the natural world; almost holographic. And I am absolutely mesmerized.
But Alys, surely you've seen a dragonfly before.
Of course I have. But the thing about me is that I am a child of the pavement; a city dweller, if you will. I was born and raised in the concrete jungle of downtown Dallas, and just recently discovered that I enjoyed nature and the outdoors in my late twenties.
So yes, I am familiar, in a vague way, with the dragonfly, but until this blackberry bush blossomed, I had never seen one in my very own backyard. And never this close. I could see its delicate wings, thinner than paper as they fluttered gently.
How magical.
If you happened to read part one of this series, you'll know that I am working on romanticizing my life and bringing magic back into it this summer. If you didn't, that's fine, you're welcome to follow along at any point. This moment with this dragonfly, and the creature itself felt so magical, that I couldn't get it out of my head, I started looking every morning, right at dawn, at the blackberry bush, waiting for more dragonflies to grace me with their presence.
And they did. All in varying shades of blues, purples, and blacks. And as it turns out, I was far from the first person to see the magic in them.
Dragonflies are ancient creatures, believed to have been around for hundreds of millions of years, and are symbolic and important to many different cultures. As a pagan, I was drawn to one particular story I read about their symbolism in Celtic Folklore.
Dragonflies are tied closely in Celtic Folklore to fairies and their realms, and some stories tell us that if you are lucky enough to follow a dragonfly without losing it, it will lead you back to the fairy realm itself. In other stories, they are believed to be the mounts for fairies to ride, as if they were truly tiny dragons.
In the more modern world, dragonflies are believed to be a good omen, representing good fortune, and becoming your true self through transformation.
A good omen indeed, especially on a journey such as this.
So I will leave you with this, "Magic is seeing wonder in nature's every little thing, seeing how wonderful the fireflies are and how magical are the dragonflies." - Ama H. Vanniarachchy
I hope you have a magical week!
XOXO Alys
About the Creator
Alys Revna
Writer of things. Mostly poetry, fiction, and fantasy. ✨
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Notes On A Summer Garden:
I’m standing outside this morning watering the garden. I am such an optimistic gardener in the spring. I am so motivated by the new growth of the bushes and trees and the sturdy stems of the seeds I started in my little three-season porch back in January. This is the year I think to myself, This is the year my garden thrives. I am so confident, and so committed.
By Alys Revnaabout a year ago in Earth
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