During my travels around the world, I found inspiration from unexpected encounters that I'd like to share with you. Sometimes you have to go (far) away to get closer. This time: ‘Ode to the Dragonfly'.
On a journey to Portugal in the ‘Parque des Estrellas’, I sat outside my tent near an idyllic stream. Sitting on the edge, with my feet in the stream, I saw large ultraviolet blue, emerald green and bright red dragonflies flying around. I sat for a while watching them fly, how they suddenly turned quickly and made contact with each other. I became more and more mesmerized by it. Then I got an idea: ‘Can you make contact with a dragonfly so that it will sit on you?’
The ‘inner judge’ in my ego-bus thought: ridiculous, you are not superstitious! After a while, however, my genuine curiosity grew stronger.
At some point it occurred to me how I could imagine from my heart with unconditional love an imaginary line through my arm and hand to the heart of the dragonfly, without expectation. And truly, the dragonfly literally came right up to my hand!
I decided to make a second attempt by carefully directing a line from my heart to the tip of my head and then to the heart of the dragonfly. And sure enough, the dragonfly flew from thumb to crown. And then another request came up from myself: ‘I want you to sit on my knee right now.’ The tone of my voice betrayed a conditional (ego) demand. The dragonfly didn’t seem to be attracted to it, and just flew away instead.
A few months later I told this story during one of my annual weeklong retreats “Inner Nature”. After the break, the retreat continued in the course room and
I wanted to sit on the chair from which I had told the dragonfly story a while ago. One participant suddenly shouted loudly: ‘Look out.... don’t sit down... there’s
a dragonfly on your chair!’ What are the chances that a dragonfly is sitting in a course room... sits on my chair... right after that story has been shared?
I had been in this room many times for years and we had never seen a dragonfly inside.
From the heart and spirit, everything is connected to everything…
Here’s a short impression of some of my journeys of discovery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca58VpEoy_Y
© 2025: Martin Thoolen
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