Afterlife

Hello you beautiful reader!

Quick question: do you think there is an afterlife?

I used to be so gung-ho on being skeptic about this but now I'm 

starting to wonder....

Recently, my dog passed away.

She was the most energetic puppy. When I was having a bad day, I'd 

take a nap with her on my lap. Her eyes would never close completely but you could tell she was asleep because she would snore very loudly. Her paws would be so warm and smell like popcorn.

Her eyes didn't close completely when she passed away either. It looked like she was sleeping but you could tell she had stopped breathing because her soft, warm paws had turned cold.

I miss her so much.

In old Japanese folklore, it is said that the dead can come visit the 

living by turning into insects. I live in the city where the most common 

insect encounter is that with a cockroach or mosquito but the week 

or so after my puppy's death, the most beautiful blue dragonfly was 

perched on my balcony. It stayed a while, seemingly admiring my 

houseplant, then flew away quietly. I don't know what it was but it let 

me think that maybe my puppy had come to bid me farewell. I cried a 

little after that.

I'm not saying that the dragonfly was my puppy but the old folklore 

allowed me to believe that it was.

This was another example of stories being something that gives 

people hope and empowers them to feel, I suppose.