Large Fierce Mammal

“I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

Many experiences in my life have contributed to my conviction that seemingly random events are often, if not always, anything but. Here is a case in point.

A few years ago I was hiking alone in one of my favourite forests about a forty-five minute drive north of Bridgewater. You access this place by first travelling a spell on foot along the old railway line until it intersects a tributary stream to the LaHave River where you then veer north across it and on into the woods. It was early morning when I arrived at the stream with the sun slanting through the trees and putting a sparkle on the water. I was halfway across when I noticed something coming into view around the bend about 50 or so meters upstream – a swarm of what looked like hundreds of iridescent blue sparks  dancing around each other as they moved in concert with the direction of the water’s flow toward me. As they drew closer, I could see that each spark had black wings that fluttered as they flew in a manner that reminded me of a moth or butterfly.

Click the picture for a larger view.

Fascinated by this spectacle, I stood in the middle of the river and watched. There was an interval between the point where I still couldn’t see enough detail for my mind to grasp what these things were, and the moment when the facts snapped into focus, that my imagination had full reign and I was briefly standing in the land of Faeries.

And then I was in their midst! A swarm of damselflies – Ebony Jewelwings to be exact – each one like a piece of living jewelry, made no less amazing for their being creatures of biology instead of magick. As they fluttered by, a few noticed my presence and alighted on me a moment. One in particular landed on the sternum strap of my pack and stood in the middle of my chest looking up at me. It was an incredible blue with shining eyes and black wings folded on its back that from such a close vantage I could see were formed of a fine deep black mesh overlaid with a transparent membrane that reminded me of incredibly thin smoked glass. And then my visitor rejoined its brethren as the swarm moved on with its business leaving me to mine.

For this to be experienced I needed to be exactly where and when I was. So simple and yet so profound.