brokenpurplecrayon

i’m not done posting my travelogue from Texas, but i haven’t had a lot of time to write, so it’s still in the making.  i do, however, want to write something down about the truly bizarre, but very vivid dream i had last night.

the section i remember involved my going to a witch’s house.  she lived in a house that was accessible by a wooden suspension bridge. the house was small and cozy but the back yard was the truly incredible place.  it was a lush paradise garden.  one of the services she offered was the ability to turn you into an animal/creature so you could learn the things you needed to learn.

she accomplished this task by having you drink a potion.  she offered you a potion but you didn’t have to accept that particular one.  you could choose a different one, if you liked.  you had no idea what animal you would turn into – even if you took the one she offered.  she knew what all of the potions would change you into but she wouldn’t tell you.

she offered me a bottle (i can’t remember what color the potion was) but i declined it. she smiled and offered me a silver tray full of different bottles with lots of colored potions.  i chose one that was purple and red.  she smiled and shook her head – “that’s not the one i expected You to choose”. that comment surprised me for some reason.

i drank the potion. she told me it might take several minutes or even an hour to take effect and to make myself comfortable in the garden.  there were LOTS of other people in there.  i walked around with my backpack, looking for a place to put my things down. i saw a former coworker of mine so i went over to talk to him.

i put my backpack down against a tree and when i looked back down, a dragonfly had gotten caught on the strap and was struggling. i freed it, gently, and let it fly away. my friend cautioned me to be very careful – and went further to say that the dragonfly was actually another client – a friend of his.  i asked if she was ok – if i had hurt her.  he said he’d Facebook her to find out.  (no idea how a dragonfly can Facebook, but hey, it was a dream!)

apparently, she was fine and was grateful to me for releasing her.  he asked me what color the potion was i had chosen – i told him – and he smiled, saying that the girl i had freed and i would probably get along well.  when i asked him why, he said “because you’re about to turn into a dragonfly too”.

he asked me if i had any vision problems. i pointed to my glasses and said that i needed them to see distances.  he nodded and said the biggest change i would notice would be my vision.  he said it would be incredibly clear and vibrant – and when i returned to my normal form, i would feel almost blind.

i woke up as i felt my body starting to shift.

a little research this evening revealed the following:

It would be “shortsighted” to omit a discussion of dragonfly eyes. Undoubtedly most important assets, dragonfly eyes allow them to detect color, ultraviolet light, polarized light and, most importantly, the movement of insect prey. In the insect world, large eyes such as these are called compound eyes, because they possess thousands of smaller eyes within. This does not mean that dragonflies see thousands of small objects if they are only looking at one. Rather, the image the dragonfly receives is a mosaic that depicts the single object of focus. The advantage: having a field of view that is almost 360 degrees all at once.

Dragonfly eyes also have high-speed perception that exceeds our imagination. Using baseball as an example, players with better high-speed perception are often the best hitters. The fast pitch is easier for them to observe. In the dragonfly world, prey that is flying in the opposite direction of a fast-moving dragonfly can still be captured, whereas we would only see a brief flash, if even that.

Other optical attributes include the detection of ultraviolet wavelengths, resulting in the sky’s appearing extra bright and creating better contrast between it and small insect prey. The detection of polarized light allows for twilight feeding. It’s easy to see that the dragonfly eye provides an important key to its success.

from South Carolina Wildlife Magazine

apparently, i’m in a phase where i’m trying to ‘see all sides’ of an issue.