The other day my son and I went fishing. This is a usual occurrence at least every other week on our day off. What made this different was that he was the only one catching fish. We were backed up on one of the many little dark water sloughs off the Tennessee River, where tall trees have branches that cascade down and mingle with shrubs and vines along the shore and hang into the water. Fish like to hide in the shadows. I'm not saying I was bored, but I did get out my binoculars and spent some time watching dragons. Did I say dragons? Yes! As in dragonflies, and damselflies, their cousins. Dragonflies have always been a mystery to me as to how they can fly. They glide effortlessly but with just a little twitch of their delicate wings they can sail high in the air and catch a mosquito or fly and land on a twig near the waters edge and have quite a meal. The air that day was hot and very heavy with no breeze to cool us off but I didn't notice much due to all the wild life around me. From previous study I knew that on the bottom of that swampy area, under my boat, lived a whole bunch of baby dragonflies. They don't look like adults at all when they first hatch out but rather like little monsters with jaws and claws used to eat little fish, tadpoles and things to help them grow. After seven or eight different changes of skin they emerge on the surface looking totally different. Now as adults they have many colors, are able to fly, and have about 30,000 eyes. Yes! They have many very small eyes that make up two big compound eyes, one on either side of their head; and they don't miss much that goes on around them. Isn't it wonderful and interesting all the creatures God has made and just for our enjoyment. But I'm also glad we look like people when we are born and not like little monsters, aren't you? God made us in his image so let us thank God for this great gift by respecting all the other life he created for us.
- Uncle Burney ("The Builder" August/September, 2002)
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