“Quick, come and see!” came the call from the garden.  Penny and Ethan were watching a dragonfly unnecessarily trapped in our garden shelter, and the frantic antics of an extremely excited sparrow who clearly desired ‘dragonfly’ for dinner.

Our garden shelter is fully open on one side and closed on all others.  It is translucent – letting in the light and allowing you to see silhouettes through the covering walls.  

Following the light ahead, the dragonfly repeatedly flew into this translucent barrier to its potential freedom… oblivious to the doom it would have experienced if it had succeeded.  For, having spotted the silhouette of the dragonfly, and hearing its whirring wings, a sparrow was desperately seeking to seize its prey through the other side of the walls of the shelter.

The dragonfly was stuck.  It kept repeating the same behaviours – and life wasn’t getting any better – it was literally banging its head against a wall and becoming exhausted.  The sparrow kept repeating the same behaviours too, and it was seemingly getting frustrated that it couldn’t obtain its desired dragonfly-dinner.  As we watched, the sparrow quit.

Maybe we should end the blog here – because I’m certain you’ve got a message.

Maybe you’re like the dragonfly.

Maybe you’re like the sparrow.

“If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.”  So, “If you don’t like the results you’re getting, try something else.”

The dragonfly only needed to turn around and fly in the opposite direction.  It wasn’t being denied the freedom it so obviously desired.  Freedom was behind it - obvious to the observers.  But, if it was to become free, it would have to change its direction and its behaviour.

This speaks volumes to me.

There was nothing wrong with the dragonfly’s desires – or attitude, if dragonflies have attitudes and desires! It simply wanted liberty, freedom, release.  The dragonfly’s problem was that it was pursuing this worthwhile goal in an ineffective way.

What I like about this true story is that an outside agency changed the outcome.

I rescued the dragonfly from its futility, and the sparrow didn’t get dragonfly for dinner.  It took that outside agent – me – to see the solution to all this fruitless searching and wasted effort.

Thus, my message to me today, and hopefully a useful message for you too, is twofold:

Firstly, if you feel stuck and don’t like the results you’re getting – try some other behaviour or location or circle of friends; secondly, stay open to an outside agent entering your circumstances with a different way of seeing the scenario and the ability to intervene.  Then surrender to that agent and let them direct you, guide you, in a new direction.

You see, the presupposition, “If you keep on doing what you’ve been doing, you’ll keep getting what you’ve been getting,” is a partial truth.  Neither the dragonfly nor the sparrow changed, but someone outside intervened who saw their world differently and not only could help, but took action.

May you be helped today; and may you, in turn, help someone else who is stuck.  And, if you’re feeling strong enough, bold enough, courageous enough, you may even be able to help yourself by trying something different.

Fly free, my friends (and watch out for hungry sparrows!)

Lex

A Moodscope member