Guardian Angels

Among thousands of quivering, sparkling silver dragonflies blazes a scouring, rampaging fire, diminishing everything it comes in contact with. Scattered piles of ashes that crumble even when gently touched lay in a path behind it, under it, and the area before it will soon be the same.1

The image of the blazing fire is mirrored in her clear eyes. The image flickers, and alters, but never fades. She gazes intently at the beautiful congregation of tiny flickering silver lights, and envisions guardian angels. 2

She senses the metaphors, and contemplates them. Forlornly she assesses all the damage that just one fire caused, and compares it to all the harm one person caused her whole life, and the lives of all of those who care about her. She watches the dragonflies ('guardian angels') and thinks of her immediate family members, her friends, and her boy friend, and how they've made the aftermath of the damage that person caused bearable.3

Carefully, so as not to sit too close to the angry fire, and to not disturb the dragonflies, she sits below a massive tree, with her back against its rough protective bark, and she quietly watches the scene play out before her. When she first sat, the fire was the equivelant of five city blocks away, and is already now only four away. She shivers violently as a dragonfly is grabbed viciously by the fire, and quickly disintegrates, turning to ash. 4