Autumn dragonfly

Leaves are falling in my yard today, and on the creek. The creek is fairly cluttered with leaves, in fact. The water is no longer flowing because we haven't had rain for so long. So it sits. Sometimes it moves a little bit if the wind manages to reach far enough into the creek to disturb the water. Rocks and piles of brown leaves separate the different pools of water. Not stagnate yet, they will soon become so if we don't get some rain.

Watching the leaves fall on the creek today, I noticed a leaf that seemed to be flying instead of falling. Then this "leaf" hovered over a rock like a helicopter , and I realized that it was not a leaf but a dragonfly. A dragonfly that looked strangely leaf-like. A burnt orange to dark brown-ish dragonfly. Perhaps she is showing her pride today in the burnt orange University of Texas Longhorns who looked like a real football team yesterday.

I don't know anything about ddragonflies, and I've never been particularly interested in them. I've seen purple ones before and translucent ones that took on a variety of deep blue and pink colors. But I've never seen a brown one. I've never seen one that reminded me of a leaf.

I'm amazed, really. That a burnt orange, brownish dragonfly would be hanging out by the creek while the brown leaves are falling is really astounding to me. That I would see dragonfly and think, "leaf". That a dragonfly would be camouflaged as a leaf. This infinite creator God continues to surprise me. That's why I go to the creek. I'm sure there have always been brown dragonflies. I'm glad I stopped long enough to be amazed by one this morning.