My Dragonflies

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar used to retell a childhood story about dragonflies to explain the difference he saw between the world inside the singularity of a black hole and the outside world around it. A dragonfly nymph, still underwater, promised his companions that he would return below the surface of the water after he had left to change and tell them what the world was like above. Of course, after he turned into a dragonfly, he couldn't come back to tell his friends what had happened.
"Will none of you in pity
To those you left behind, disclose the secret?"

Of course, none of my friends leaving for their summer trips are doing anything quite so dramatic as the dragonfly. They're certainly not falling into a black hole, and, to follow the allusion to its full significance, none of them are going off to the Great Beyond, I hope. But some are leaving, and some have already left, to do something that to me is as different from the life I lead here as a dragonfly's life is from a nymph's. You're living fully into a call and following it to the ends of the Earth. But share about it, please, for those of us left behind.

God bless you, my friends, and bring you back safe. Let good work through you so that every second of every day, though you may not feel it, you may be helped by the grace of the people around you and you may help them in return. Love deeply those whose lives you touch, taking love from that never-ending supply, so that when you come back, you'll have some left to give to us as we listen to your stories and pretend that we can share in the life you've lived. Take courage so that you can give courage to each of us so that we can find our place here to live life as fully as you are. I can't wait to see you when you come back.

With all my love,
Addie Jo