November 11, 2019
As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
Wolf. How many of you said wolf? Come on, raise your hands and let me see. Keep them up for a minute so I can get a good look.
And the answer is … not a wolf.
But yes, I will still graciously accept the various wolf-related gifts that people like to give me. I know, I’m hard to buy for. Wolf T-shirts, statues, and note cards are great gifts. I have no problem with them.
But my spirit animal is not an animal at all.
It’s the dragonfly. An insect. I’ll even accept it’s cousin, the damselfly. Most of us can’t tell the difference, anyway.
I’ve felt an affinity with these marvelous creatures since childhood. Their
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variety of sparkling colors. The delicacy of their translucent wings. The way they own the air as they dart about, seemly without effort.
I’ve known people who are creeped out by dragonflies. Not me. I’ve been known to rescue them when they accidentally get stuck inside a building, encouraging them to land on me so I can take them back outside.
And yes, I am aware that at their core, they are deadly predators. Those amazing aerobatic maneuvers are executed in not to entertain us, but to catch and eat another insect. but with mosquitoes and midges being their meals of choice, they serve a helpful purpose to us humans.
Why do I think a dragonfly is my spirit animal? I don’t know the answer to that question. I didn’t have a dream or vision that revealed it to me, the answer just came to me after watching a Star Trek episode. Yeah, go ahead and google that.
And what does a dragonfly have to do with writing? Well, maybe it’s that we, as writers, have to snatch at words that dart through our imaginations and capture them to feed our readers’ souls.
I’m curious to find out what the others on this blog hop have as spirit animals or mascots. You can find out, too, by following the links below. Or, hang around for a few minutes and share your spirit animal in the comments.
November 11, 2019
As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?
Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
How strange, as you wouldn’t necessarily associate Star Trek with dragonflies!
It’s the six degrees of separation. Although it turns out there is a dragonfly class of ship
Spaceship, lol?
I’m surrounded by squirrels, yet I have no affinity, all they do is dig my flower bulbs up and eat them.
Your flower bulbs and everything else they can find!
Dragonflies are huge here in Alaska because, well, despite our amazing mountains, much of the land between those mountains is very wet permafrost, so we have MOSQUITOES. Dragonflies eat mosquitoes, so we are a friend of the dragonfly – mud-doppers, too.
I have turtles. People give them to me. Thank you. That’s what I always say. I don’t know why they give me turtles. I can guess. They googled Wyandots and learned of the world turtle myth and they think we all embrace the turtle as a totem. It’s also something of a self-generating thing – they see the collection so they jump to a conclusion. I’m not a member of any of the three or four turtle clans. But I have a collection of turtles – jade, ivory, ceramic, a couple different kinds of wood, brass, quartz, and a turtle-shaped brooch with a cool pink stone for the shell. My husband keeps threatening to have someone carve a coffee table in the shape of a turtle (Lel us pray he remains too broke for such luxuries).
I like my little carvings, but I’m always perplexed as to why people give them to me. Mostly they come from friends who could actually ask me what I think of turtles as a totem. My answer would be “I’m not Turtle Clan” and keeping another clan’s totems in your house is supposed to be something of a curse. Fortunately, I don’t believe that, so when someone gives me yet another turtle, I just say “Thank you” because I suspect there aren’t so many beaver carvings available. And truthfully, my clan totem would be a like a beaver-deer-porcupine mix, which sounds like a horrifying carving.
So I always say thank you for the turtles.
Someone once gave my mother a rooster figurine for no discernible reason. All of a sudden, she started receiving chicken themed items for any and all gift-giving occasion. When she finally moved out of the family house into something smaller, she got rid of most of the “collection.”