“Viva la Dragonfly”

Jul 3, 2015 | 3 comments |

Before the Golden Heart® class of 2015 named itself the Dragonflies, I hadn’t thought much about that particular insect. I hadn’t had a positive experience with dragonflies, but I hadn’t had a negative one either. Dragonflies were simply peripheral to my life.

Much has changed in the past three months. Suddenly, dragonflies are everywhere, and a tangible symbol of the transformation, hope and growth which my Golden Heart® sisterhood represents. 

I’ve bought a silver dragonfly for the writing charm bracelet I blogged about last year.

And last Saturday, when I saw a colourful dragonfly pendant on a mannequin in the window of a local charity shop. I dashed toward it. While English Rose pretended not to know me, I had the pendant in my grasp before anyone else spotted it.

For the first summer since we’ve lived in our present house, dragonflies have been regular visitors to the garden, and have even ventured in through open upstairs windows to investigate my writing room and the master bedroom.

I’ve seen dragonfly-painted crockery, dragonfly-inspired craft kits, and dragonfly-decorated cupcakes. And when I turned over my wall calendar to July, a dragonfly captured in delicate watercolour soared above a pond of water lilies.

From a bug-eyed insect, the dragonfly has become special to me. It’s given me new friends, and a new writing community. It’s given me sparkly bling, and an excuse to seek out such bling on days when procrastination triumphs over plot and word count.

I’ve even included a dragonfly reference in my work in progress as dragonflies have a wide habitat, and are as at home in rural Canada as they are in an English garden. 

As many of you know, 2015 has brought challenges for me, and with those challenges have come life changes. More change is on the horizon, so it seems fitting I’ll gather with the Dragonflies, a symbol of change, in New York City at the end of July for the Romance Writers of America® (RWA®) national conference.

Although I’m passing on the tattoo (even a temporary one), with less than three weeks till conference, I could still succumb to those sparkly dragonfly flip-flops. 

To quote my Golden Heart® sister, the fabulous Kim MacCarron, “Viva la Dragonfly.”

Has something ever become unexpectedly symbolic for you?

3 Comments

  1. Sue Bavin

    It’s funny, isn’t it, how when something takes on a special significance, suddenly we start seeing it everywhere? I’m delighted that you found a dragonfly for your charm bracelet – the perfect memento to encapsulate the honour and excitement of your Golden Heart nomination. As for those dragonfly flip-flops – go on, you know you want them….

    Reply
    • Jen Gilroy

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting, Sue. I’m still holding out on the dragonfly flip-flops but succumbed to a silver dragonfly pendant this week. What can I say? It was in a sale and my birthday is coming up…!!

      Reply
  2. Cathy Murray

    Just catching up with your Blog today,Jen, and wish you every happiness with your dragonflies.

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to Blog

Want to get posts about my life, family, writing & more? To receive an email notification whenever I publish a new blog post, sign up here.
Loading

Newsletter

Want to get exclusive giveaways, subscriber-first book news & more? Sign up for my newsletter here.




Latest from the Blog

Photo by Robin Spencer, Spencer Studio