I am noticing how finely attuned my senses are right now, to the sounds, the smells, the buzzing life of the earth all around me.

I went into the Meditation Hall, knelt by the altar and said my prayer:

Until I awaken, I take refuge in the buddha (the light within), the dharma (my teachers human and non), and the sangha (all the people of this world, my ancestors and my descendants).
Through the goodness of generosity and other virtues,
May I awaken fully in order to help all beings.

I was settling into my sit when I heard a loud buzzing and beating at the window. There are always bees and flys trapped behind the huge panes of glass, and I have to carefully trap them one by one with a cup and cardboard. But this time when I got up from my stool there was a large dragonfly, beating itself violently against the glass.

I was afraid that I would injure it if I tried to trap it in a cup so I got a piece of paper and held it under the dragonfly. She scrambled away, once, twice. And then I started talking to her, I said, trust me, please. I’ll carry you outside. I promise. Shhhhh….be still, I’ll help you.

And then she crawled onto the paper, and stood still, vibrating with fear. And I kept talking her down, talking her down, and slowly carried her to the open window. Then I said OK, there you go…fly.

She stood for a moment, and then gathered her legs and flew.