Blue Dragonfly

The following is a post I wrote on Atlas Quest last summer. I was telling a co-worker friend about the post and told her it was here on my blog. Well, until now it was only on Atlas Quest. I hope you folks like it as much as my other friends did. I wrote it in response to some complaints about new letterboxers and the efforts some seasoned letterboxers take to prevent new letterboxers from seeing the clues until they have some finds under their belt.

You give me inspiration. We all need one another.
Many times while kayaking, blue dragonflies have flown to me and rode on me or my kayak. Sometimes it was when I was sitting quietly near a marsh, but other times too when I was making good time paddling out in open water. Over time my friends started talking about how the dragonflies were attracted to me and not to others. It is more common to have blue dragonflies accompanying me than not.
Last year while paddling with Kathryn, I spotted a dragonfly in distress. This dragonfly had gotten too wet to return to flight. It was a long way out in the lake. I doubled back to it and slowly lowered my hand under it and lifted slowly upward. The dragonfly was perched on the tip of one of my fingers. It did not try to fly.
To get the dragonfly to the shore required the use of both hands. So, I gently moved my hand near to the lashing in front of my cockpit. As I rotated my hand, the dragonfly, sort of, hopped onto the lashing. I continued paddling the course I was originally on. When the nose of my kayak slid onto the shore, the dragonfly flew to some rushes. To me, it seemed this creature recognized my good will and made use of it.
I suppose if we could understand dragonfly language, we would hear a lot of discussion about how horrible boats are. Well, this life lesson suggests there is at least one dragonfly voice saying that not all boaters are bad.
And I say, newbie letterboxers and letterboxers that have restrictions are not bad either.

Kayak Bandit '(*!*)'