Today I was thinking about dragonflies. They begin their lives underwater as small larvae, living in a completely different world beneath the surface. One day they climb up from the water, transform, and emerge with wings. Suddenly they belong to the sky. Sometimes I wonder if the people we lose are a little like dragonflies. They leave the water of the world we knew and enter another realm. They transcend the place where we once walked beside them. But maybe, just maybe, they can still look down at the stream where they once lived and see us moving through our lives. This spring I plan to visit a bench near a babbling brook dedicated to my dear friend and former partner, Mike. I imagine the water flowing over the stones, the forest green and full of life, dragonflies gliding above the surface. Maybe that’s where I’ll feel him again. Transformation. Impermanence. The water keeps flowing. — The Purple Phoenix Collective