Eyeball to Eyeball

   On Wednesday, my kids and I went tubing down the Shenandoah River outside of Harpers Ferry with some friends. It was a glorious day of bright sunshine and crystal blue skies; not the normal humid DC haze. The highlight of the adventure for my kids was leaving the safety of their tube and frolicking in the swallow river. They swam, splashed, chased each other, and jumped off rocks to their hearts content.
   The highlight of the day for me was being eyeball to eyeball with a damselfly. I am not sure what it was about my arms; a great landing pad on top of the bright orange tube but I had many visitors. At one time, I had five of them lined up on my right forearm. The leader and I stared at each other. I loved looking into its big black, bulbous eyes each positioned slightly off center. We stared at each other for a while until a splash hit my arm and all five lifted in flight with their delicate clear, cellophane wings. I wonder what the leader damselfly was thinking as we stared at each other. I was thinking, "you are beautiful."