So I'm hoping to come back to this more.  Considering all that's going on in the world since my last Post, over a year ago, I thought I'd start with my new tattoo and why.

On Facebook, I briefly mentioned that my new tattoo is a dragonfly. In more detail, (and I may try to insert a picture.) it is a bright blue, native-style, dragonfly with the Chinese character for water, shadowed underneath. Literally, a dragonfly on water.

I wanted this one for some time and I figured I finally lay down all the meaning behind it.

History: The actual story.

I worked a couple of summers for Challenge Wilderness Camp in 1989 & 1990. (Later Roaring Brook Camp for Boys) In my second season, 1990, we were on our week’s long canoe trip in northern Maine. This season, it was a "Lakes Trip." There wasn’t as much whitewater as the previous season, but still, to be in the middle of nowhere; words can’t describe. I see pictures of the night sky with the Milky Way front and center and fondly remember nights like those.

Back to my point: we were canoeing across a lake, something that would take the better part of the day and were about a half the way across, when a neon-blue dragonfly; who had absolutely no business being where it was, landed on my left arm, right at the elbow. To this day, some 30 years on, I can still feel it holding on to my arm as it rested there. I knew it needed to rest and I knew it meant me no harm, so I kept my paddling steady so as not to disturb it. The two young men in the front of my canoe were amazed that I just let it stay there and didn’t swat it away.

They kept looking back to see if it was still there, as we paddled along. For a good 15 minutes, the dragonfly rested on my arm and then after it recovered enough, took off. It flitted about the canoe for a bit, landing here and there on the kit stowed in the canoe, then was gone. 

Gone from sight, never from my mind.

Much the same way Challenge is never gone from my mind. As an aside, I find utterly amazing, and on another level, utterly terrifying; the responsibility that Corc & Thayer rested upon my shoulders. I like to think I handled it well. All I know for certain, is, it changed me. The camp was advertised as a way for young boys, typically of a sheltered life, to learn how to meet the challenges life would throw at them. Little did I know it would teach me the same. To this day, when I feel like giving in, I charge San Juan Hill one more time.

That’s the reason there is a blue dragonfly on my left elbow: physically.

Meta-physically:

In several cultures, the Dragonfly represents adaptability. The ability to move as forces dictate and adjust to their influences. The dragonfly is also a symbol of water. Thus the Chinese character it rests upon. Water, is also adaptable. It also perseveres. If you doubt that, just look at the Grand Canyon. Water also finds it’s level, it seeks calm. Much like the lake we paddled across.

This is the only tattoo, of the three I currently have, that can be seen. I want it to be. I reminds me of a time in my past that I will always cherish. And given the changes in my personal and professional life, it reminds me to adapt and persevere. It also reminds me to seek calm.

Don’t get me wrong, my other tattoos have meaning to me as well. This one, however, holds a lot more.