The Inherent Dragonfly A journey of discovering hope, change and love within myself.

  Our drive through the Badlands in South Dakota in October 2025. We are approaching our season of travel. It is an even year, so following our plan, we will be traveling within the United States for our big trip.  Big trip? You are traveling all the time, April through October.  Yes, we are but for us there are 4 different types of travel. “The Big Trip” is a trip 7 or more days in length which alternates annually between international and United States travel. “Camping” which are 2 or 3 day long trips within a four hours from home. “Traventure” which is an annual 1 week road trip with friends. “Seeking Better Weather Trip” which is a pop up trip to a warmer climate for a week in January, February or March.  This has typically been a last minute cruise, but we are open to suggestions.  So what does 2026 travel look like?  Well it is still in the production phase. We knuckled under and booked a back to back cruise coinciding with my daughter in-laws...

The first of 2 snow storms in January 2026. January 15th snowfall total 26 inches. The winter of northeast Ohio 2026 has been a long one. I am greatly appreciating the slight warm up we are experiencing the 3rd week in January. When I was lashing out at this incredibly long winter, I needed to obtain some prospective. Time to create a list! Bad   Cold gives me physical pain in the form of muscle spasms and headaches.  Ice makes me fearful of falling and injuring myself. Concern for the safety of my family (and others) who have to drive on snowy roads in frigid conditions and driving alongside those who may not make the best driving decision or have the skills to drive in Ohio winter weather.  Being inside for a week at a time (see #1) and not being able to take a walk, tool around the yard or sit outside in a park. Isolation from other humans. Ice cold hands and feet that won’t warm up for an hour (atleast). Good The quiet of winter. Time to do house projects, pai...

  Novelty, Ohio  November 2026 DISCLAIMER:  Please note that my posts may not be in chronilogical order.  Often weeks or months fall between the happening of an event and the actual reflection post allowing it to be a true, reflection of a situation or emotional response..  I did so well for 5 months, knowing myself, doing my best to offer myself to those who needed a break and their burden lightened.  To walk along and support friends and family who, I thought, needed it.   I helped in some ways and I made things harder in other ways.  I wasn’t able to hold onto my balance of “me”.  The weight was too heavy and the tightrope was threadbare. And when I fell and I fell hard shattering into a million tiny pieces.  I wallowed. I shut down. My husband, adult children and one friend know me well and could see the tightrope snapping one fiber at a time. They offered a lifeline of support through check ins, texts and little messages. And when t...

Idaho Falls, Idaho  October 2026   Here it is February 2nd, 2026 and it is not lost on me that I have not set goals for this year, or even chosen a word of the year.  Honestly, it has not been a priority of mine.  My goals and words have helped to guide me, encourage me and got me back on track on a number of occasions over the past 20 years.  Just look at my word list of 2025: Change, Gratitude, Health and Strength.  Yep. All of them had a main storyline in my life in 2025.  Change - so much change.  My grandson is at a fabulously fun age. My mom, sister and daughter continue to deal with change in their health which has changed my world immensely for the past 5 months.  Gratitude - I still constantly reflect on my illness in 2022 and am filled with gratitude with how far I have come physically and emotionally. My gratitude for my children and husband only continues to grow.  I have been very purposeful in showing my gratitude to strang...

  Nothing to do with the post.  But a landscape photo I took in October 2026 in Montana. This is the first time in more than 6 months that I have actually felt like writing down my thoughts.  I debate if not writing is actually a positive step for me.  Many times I choose to write because I have thoughts I need to sort and truth I need to speak.  I have had several months of entangled emotional thoughts.  Some I didn’t want to commit to paper and so much emotional confusion. There were some dark days and even weeks, but I have been able to place all my odd shaped blocks of emotions, memories, responses, fear, regret, rejection, acceptance, grief, progression and regression into my magical shape sorter and am back to living life.   Maybe I should have been processing through writing and putting all of my thoughts and fears of the unknown down on paper so that when the time comes again  and I need to trudge down an unknowing path, I can just pi...

Cars and other billboards were edited from this photo. - September 19th, 2025 My annual birthday trip for August was cancelled due to some time sensitive family needs. We were able to reschedule the trip to Michigan to the middle of September. We had to adjust our expectations a bit and opted to bring the bikes instead of the kayaks. Also the weather would be cooler, but I am not certain that was such a bad thing. Our length of stay also needed to be adjusted slightly by reducing the trip by a day due to our September calendar. This was not a big sacrifice. I surprised myself when we crossed the Welcome to Michigan sign when I realized that this was the first time I had been to Michigan. This is so funny since it is only a few hours from our home in Ohio. Our drive pulling our 25 and a half foot travel trailer, though littered with construction, was uneventful. Well it wasn’t all uneventful. We stopped at a rest area near the Ohio line and I had my first pumpkin spice. Please remember ...