when i was very young, my mother told me that a dragonfly would stitch my mouth shut if it landed on me. for many years afterward, i was terrified of dragonflies and would scream if they came near me. i was sure their long tail was as sharp as a needle...that they would hurt me as they stitched my mouth closed. my mother never knew how her words had effected me. what seemed harmless to her was deeply traumatizing to me. it was that way with most of her words. what i came to understand many years later, was that dragonflies were not the ones who could hurt me, it was my mother.