{"id":20402,"date":"2026-03-11T09:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T09:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/tiny-blessings-with-shimmering-wings\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:09:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:09:58","slug":"tiny-blessings-with-shimmering-wings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/positive-living\/friends-and-family\/pets\/tiny-blessings-with-shimmering-wings\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny Blessings with Shimmering Wings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The insects live underwater, wondering what exists above. One brave bug offers to climb the lily pad and report back. He makes his way up the stalk, breaks the surface and feels the sun\u2019s warmth. Suddenly his body is transformed into a beautiful four-winged creature\u2014a dragonfly. After soaring through the air, he tries to return home but discovers he cannot dive beneath the water. He\u2019s unable to tell anyone about the wonders of the world above\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

The story wouldn\u2019t leave my mind. I pulled my jacket tighter against the late-October breeze, hurrying from my office to the drugstore, where I intended to buy a card. Occasionally I glanced up into the clear blue sky for those shimmering wings.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just a story<\/i>, I thought. A parable about heaven in a book that a friend had put in my hands after my daughter\u2019s funeral, four months earlier.<\/p>\n

Kari was only 27 years old when she died in an ATV accident. She occupied my every waking thought. All it took was a simple \u201cHow are you?\u201d from a coworker and I was lost. Or the sight of gerbera daisies, her favorite. Whenever the phone rang early in the morning, I remembered Kari, who always called me on her way to work. \u201cSunshine walking through the door\u201d was how a friend described her, and that was spot on. When she died, the darkness took over<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I tried to remember every detail about her. The way her shoulders shook when she broke into that infectious laughter. The faint cherry blossom scent of her body lotion\u2014sometimes I used it just to feel closer to her. In the middle of the night, exhausted but unable to sleep, I sought refuge in my sewing room, stitching bib after bib for my grandkids, just as I had made pink dresses for Kari when she was little.<\/p>\n

Take care of me, God,<\/i> I prayed as I sewed. I\u2019m hurting so bad.<\/i><\/p>\n

Rounding the corner to the drugstore, I thought of the dragonfly pin Kari always wore on her winter coat. Gold with tiny amber rhinestones that twinkled in the light. Maybe that pin was one of the reasons the story stayed with me.<\/p>\n

A few weeks after the funeral<\/a>, Kari\u2019s husband, Donnie, came to visit. We\u2019d put on forced smiles and tried to say the right things without losing it. We took a pontoon boat out on the lake, the lapping of the water filling the gaps in our conversation. Then I looked over at Donnie and gasped. A dragonfly with delicate blue wings was hovering just above his shoulder.<\/p>\n

All summer<\/a> long, I saw dragonflies wherever I went, not just by the lake. In my backyard, a dragonfly landed lightly on my wrist. A swarm of dragonflies even surrounded my car on my drive home from work one evening. With every sighting of those slender bodies darting through the air, I felt as if God had poked a needle through the darkness, letting Kari\u2019s light shine through.<\/p>\n

Now it had been weeks since I\u2019d seen one. Dragonflies couldn\u2019t survive the harsh Minnesota winter. The darkness returned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink of the good times,\u201d everyone kept telling me. \u201cShe wouldn\u2019t want to see you so sad.\u201d But how could I not be sad? I faced a gloomy winter\u2014and the rest of my life\u2014without my daughter.<\/p>\n

I reached the drugstore and opened the door. A little bell chimed. The cashier glanced in my direction. That\u2019s when I froze, unable to take another step.<\/p>\n

Everywhere I looked\u2014the aisles, the displays, the discount bins and the card racks\u2014translucent wings glimmered in the store\u2019s fluorescent light. On wind chimes and garden stakes. On trinkets and souvenirs. On merchandise tagged for sale with one common theme: dragonflies.<\/p>\n

\u201cA late shipment of summer items,\u201d the cashier said.<\/p>\n

They weren\u2019t late for me. The timing was perfect.<\/p>\n

I felt myself emerging then, slowly breaking free. Out of the muddy waters below. Finally able to catch a clear glimpse of the sky above, where dragonflies go.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The insects live underwater, wondering what exists above. One brave bug offers to climb the lily pad and report back. He makes his way up the stalk, breaks the surface and feels the sun\u2019s warmth. Suddenly his body is transformed into a beautiful four-winged creature\u2014a dragonfly. After soaring through the air, he tries to return […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[226,191],"tags":[156,276,70,64,75],"ppma_author":[1274],"class_list":["post-20402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coping-with-grief","category-pets","tag-death","tag-empty-nest","tag-mother","tag-nature","tag-pets"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTiny Blessings with Shimmering Wings - Guideposts Articles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tiny Blessings with Shimmering Wings\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The insects live underwater, wondering what exists above. 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