The story came to me in clarity… and returned to help me find my way.

How the Dragonfly Book Came to Be — Part Two

There’s an irony woven through the story of how the Dragonfly book came to be — something I didn’t fully understand until recently.

About twenty years ago, long before the Dragonfly story appeared, I was inspired by a series of spiritual books to try to write a book of my own. I had the beginning, the ending, the themes, and several pieces in between. I could see the idea clearly — but I could never move beyond those early fragments. No matter how hard I tried, the story refused to take shape. Eventually, I let it go, convinced it wasn’t meant to be.

That’s part of why the Dragonfly story arriving so effortlessly felt so surprising. The book I expected to write never came together… and the one I never planned arrived whole.

But here’s the part I never saw coming:

After the Dragonfly book was finished — after it existed in the world as a real, physical book — something inside me opened. Suddenly, the story I gave up on twenty years ago began to come alive again. The ideas flowed in a way they never had before. The structure revealed itself. Connections formed. It felt as though the light had finally turned on.

And I realized something I hadn’t understood before: maybe the Dragonfly book had to come first. Maybe I needed to move through that story to unlock the next one. Maybe it had to arrive exactly when it did — both times — to help me in ways I didn’t fully grasp in the moment.

There were slow and frustrating moments in the publishing process, but I never doubted that bringing this book into the world was right. The hardest moments came later, when the launch felt so quiet and uncertain. I couldn’t understand how something that had arrived like such a gift could take so long to find its readers.

Winning the IAN award felt like a small spark — a reminder that the book is beginning to find its place.

Recently I had a thought: “Don’t ask for the gift — the gift finds you.” From the beginning, that’s what this story has felt like. After everything this past year, that feeling means even more. I trust it will continue finding the people it’s meant for, quietly and in its own time.

If this little story helped me find my way forward, I hope it might do the same for someone else.