On my run today, I made a quick pit stop at little coffee shop just off the trail.
When I walked past the drinking fountain, I noticed a dragon fly in the drain. He (an educated gender guess based on quick internet research) kept trying to move up the curved wall of the steel basin, but gravity and the slippery, wet surface pulled him back down into the shallow pool of water around the drain.
I watched him struggle for a moment and tried to make sense of it. His body was so large it almost eclipsed the miniscule amount of water that prevented his escape. It appeared as if he should be able to just wade out and take flight. But he clearly couldn’t, despite great effort. Something about the water rendered him too heavy to move.
I reached out my finger and placed the top of my nail underneath his body and gently nudged him in the direction he was straining to go. I barely did a thing, only moved him a few millimeters further up the wall.
But it was enough. He flapped his wings again, gained traction and crawled out of the basin and onto the ledge. I stepped back and watched as he took flight, disappearing into the surrounding trees and flowers.
I smiled at the sky.
Perhaps he would have eventually made it without my help. But I’d like to think my little nudge helped save a dragonfly today.
Sometimes we need the same kind of push. The water doesn’t have to be so deep to drown us, even a little bit can be enough to make it impossible to move. Sometimes we just need someone else to notice and nudge us, ever so slightly, to a place where we can take off on our own.
If you are a dragonfly in a drain right now, keep trying.
If you’re not, start looking for one. Today just might be the day you help someone fly.