In four more days, the Red Dragonfly Gallery will close its doors for the last time.
It's bittersweet experience, packing up all the art to go back to the artists; arranging to sell fixtures and getting ready to lock the door at the end of the day... for the last time.
But I want to set aside the feelings of sadness for the moment, and take a moment to tell a true story of "magic" and the amazing coincidences of life.
A Long Time Ago
Our humble beginnings as a gallery were marked by an amazing Red Dragonfly story that, in a sense, became the gallery's "mascot."
The "first" Red Dragonfly
A couple of days after we opened — June 18th, 2016 to be precise — a talented local photographer who'd been part of the Red Dragonfly's predecessor (an artist's co-op) stopped in to meet my wife and myself.
We welcomed her, and talked about what we were hoping to do with the gallery. The photographer allowed as how she'd never actually seen a red dragonfly here in western Washington; they tend to be more dry/warm weather creatures.
We parted ways for the day, but just a few hours later she called us, with much excitement!
On her way home, she and her daughter stopped at a lavender farm, for a spell. Being a photographer, she of course had her camera with her... and just a few minutes into their visit, all of a sudden a red dragonfly came out of nowhere and settled on an apple tree branch just 6-7 feet away!
It sat there for just long enough for her to get one photo (above) and then it flew on... and even though she has been looking for more for the past three years, she has not seen another.
Meanwhile, Far Far Away...
As we get to this end, my wife finds herself in Texas, helping out a friend who's moving..
A couple of days ago — ON the actual 3rd anniversary of the first incident — she was in the back yard of her friend's house and this unexpected visitor (below) settles on the clothesline, within a few feet of her:
She was actually able to film a 40-second video clip, as well... before it flew off. She'd seen no red dragonflies, before that... or since.
Coincidence?
We talked about this, and decided that some coincidences truly are "beyond coincidence."
Or maybe they ARE coincidences, and we simply try to assign deeper meaning where there is none because the likelihood of something happening is so remote it feels like we just experienced "magic."
Either way, we chose to decide that there was some deeper message there.
We chose to interpret it as a "thank you" message from The Great Big Whatever It Is, and now the Red Dragonfly has been freed to fly off to new adventures!
In the meantime, we still have the "store mascot" that originally gave name to our little venture, well before the "real" red dragonflies showed up!
Image from our very first post on Steemit, two years ago!
Thanks for reading!
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Always thought it was cool mascot! I say it’s a little bit of magic :)
It was definitely a magical moment or two!
We had fun doing what we did, although it's sad the economics couldn't work. But that seems to be the case for a lot of ventures, these days.
Still, I'll keep blogging here and we'll have a small online store.
It is sad to see the Red Dragonfly go! :-O I remember seeing a red dragonfly once, when I was a kid. There was this small reservoir at high altitude where dragonflies seemed to mutant into giant, different colored animagi. What a treat. I wish you all the best post-brick-and-mortar. XO
Cheers!
Thanks for the good wishes! Hopefully we'll be able to make a little online venture of sorts... seems to be the way of the world, these days!