The portend of the dragonfly and the cicada

In Chinese culture, the dragonfly is sign of good fortune, and an appearance of a dragonfly at you home is a portend of good luck and a blessing on those who live there.  Dragonfly lore also includes the insect as a sign that one has overcome self-created delusions, as a symbol of one's power and poise, the opening of ones eyes to a truth, or signals the joy of living in the now and not dwelling on the past or the future.

Also in Chinese culture is the symbol of the cicada.  The cicada is a portend of rebirth - the shedding of ones skin to emerge fresh and revived.  It is the insect of passion, as it exists purely to molt, mate and then die.   Cicada's remind me of what an man made first generation machine made to look like a bug would look and act like.  Ugly, large, noisy and lumbering.  Now watch Karma bring me back as one in my next life.

Right now, Ohio is lousy with dragonflies and cicadas.  They are popping up in all sorts of places.

In the evening the cicadas - or what my grandfather used to refer to a locusts - unleash a deafening noise that drowns out even the trains that travel the tracks blocks from our house.  Walking the dogs is challenge in the morning because stepping on them is given.  After mating the male cicada's life cycle begins to wind down and he behaves in a lumbering drunken fashion towards death.  This is where the crunching walking comes in - because they are all suffering from a love hangover they lounge about.  They intrigue the dogs for all of the reasons and they do not get out of the away as a human approaches.

Most beautiful, and delicate are the dragonflies.  Throughout the warm spring and into the hot summer, a single dragonfly has paid a call on our house for us to see as we've approached a milestone on our move. Our first sighting the was the night before the husband left for his job non-interview trip to Baltimore, and it freaked us out.  A neighbor and his wife - both of Chinese extract - allayed my fears that the beast was here to symbolize death, and instead was a portend of good things to come.

The second and third visitations came the evening before and morning of listing our house.  Nine days later, as I buried St. Joseph upside down in our yard, another dragonfly alighted on the for sale sign.  The day we went into contract.

Yesterday afternoon as I took the dogs outside for a pee, I looked over at the pole that holds our hummingbird feeder and there was another Dragonfly, just hanging out, making itself known.  Last night the Realtor called to say that FHA appraisal and inspection both came back "exceeding expectations...on to closing. "  Our second to last hurdle is cleared.

While I am loathe to admit it, the cicada carries forth a message of fresh beginnings, though I find the bug itself gross.   When combined with the dragonflies symbolism of good fortune and clarity of vision,  it seems like our bases are covered.

Still, as we head into the home stretch, this is going to be the longest three weeks to come of my life.