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: \u2018Ode to the Dragonfly'.
On a journey to Portugal in the \u2018Parque des Estrellas\u2019, 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: \u2018Can you make contact with a dragonfly so that it will sit on you?\u2019
The \u2018inner judge\u2019 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: \u2018I want you to sit on my knee right now.\u2019 The tone of my voice betrayed a conditional (ego) demand. The dragonfly didn\u2019t 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 \u201cInner Nature\u201d. After the break, the retreat continued in the course room and\nI wanted to sit on the chair from which I had told the dragonfly story a while ago. One participant suddenly shouted loudly: \u2018Look out.... don\u2019t sit down... there\u2019s\na dragonfly on your chair!\u2019 What are the chances that a dragonfly is sitting in a course room... sits on my chair... right after that story has been shared?\nI 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\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Martin <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tijdens mijn ontdekkingsreizen over de wereld ontving ik inspiratie uit onverwachte ontmoetingen die ik graag met je deel. Soms moet je (ver) weggaan om dichterbij te komen. Deze keer: \u2018De Ode aan de Libelle\u2019. Op een reis in Portugal in het \u2018Parque des Estrellas\u2019 zat ik buiten de tent in de buurt van een idyllisch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4605,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wereldinspiraties"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinthoolen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinthoolen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinthoolen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinthoolen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinthoolen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4604"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/martinthoolen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4715,"href":"https:\/\/martinthoolen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4604\/revisions\/4715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinthoolen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/martinthoolen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinthoolen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/martinthoolen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Want to see other short discovery stories? Check out: https:\/\/martinthoolen.com\/en\/blogs-en-artikelen\/?_categorie_knops=wereldinspiraties&_categorie_knoppen=wereldinspiraties<\/a>
Here\u2019s a short impression of some of my journeys of discovery. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ca58VpEoy_Y<\/a>
\u00a9 2025: Martin Thoolen
#wereldinspiraties #worldinspirations #spirit #synchroniciteit #synchronicity #persoonlijkinspirerendleiderschap #persoonlijkleiderschap #leadership #leadershipdevelopment #leiderschap #spiritueelleiderschap #spiritedleadership #executivecoaching #leiderschap #leiderschapsontwikkeling #teamcoaching #collectiefleiderschap #professionalcoaching #coaching #businesscoaching #psychologyofselves #voicedialogue #awarenessatwork #martinthoolen<\/p>\n\n\n\n