Making Each Day Count

What thought comes to your mind when you see a dragonfly?

For me, I instantly remember my childhood days. When my brother and I would spend hours playing under the sun at our grandma’s garden. One clear memory stands out: it was a windy afternoon and we were playing on the slide, and there was a bunch of green and yellow dragonflies swarming us. We had a contest as to who would catch (and immediately release) was the most dragonflies. A simple game that left an imprint on my heart.

Years went by and I hardly saw any dragonflies anymore. Over the last five years I’ve only seen them a handful of times – during a treeplanting activity at Caliraya, Laguna; when we went to Puerto Azul, Cavite, a few weeks ago at our yard. And then this week – something bright that was flying almost hit me on the face. I ducked because I thought it was a hornet. And then it gently landed on the plant in front of me. I held my breath. And I was mesmerized as I think this is the second time I’ve seen something like this in my whole life.

It was a red dragonfly.