Waterbugs and Dragonflies
Down below the surface of a quiet pond lived a little colony
of water bugs. They were a happy colony, living far away from the sun. For many
months they were very busy, scurrying over the soft mud on the bottom of the
pond. They did notice that every once in a while one of their colony seemed to
lose interest in going about. Clinging to the stem of a pond lily it gradually
moved out of sight and was seen no more.
"Look!" said one of the water bugs to another.
"One of our colony is climbing up the lily stalk. Where do you think she
is going?" Up, up, up it slowly went....Even as they watched, the water bug disappeared from sight. Its
friends waited and waited but it didn't return...
"That's funny!" said one water bug to another.
"Wasn't she happy here?" asked a second... "Where do you suppose
she went?" wondered a third.
No one had an answer. They were greatly puzzled. Finally one
of the water bugs, a leader in the colony, gathered its friends together.
"I have an idea". The next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk must promise to come back
and tell us where he or she went and why."
"We promise", they said solemnly.
One spring day, not long after, the very water bug who had
suggested the plan found himself climbing up the lily stalk. Up, up, up, he
went. Before he knew what was happening, he had broke through the surface of the water
and fallen onto the broad, green lily pad above.
When he awoke, he looked about with surprise. He couldn't
believe what he saw. A startling change had come to his old body. His movement
revealed four silver wings and a long tail. Even as he struggled, he felt an impulse
to move his wings...The warmth of the sun soon dried the moisture from the new
body. He moved his wings again and suddenly found himself up above the water.
He had become a dragonfly!!
Swooping and dipping in great curves, he flew through the
air. He felt exhilarated in the new atmosphere. By and by the new dragonfly
lighted happily on a lily pad to rest. Then it was that he chanced to look below to the
bottom of the pond. Why, he was right above his old friends, the water bugs!
There they were scurrying
around, just as he had been doing some time before.
The dragonfly remembered the promise: "The next one of
us who climbs up the lily stalk will come back and tell where he or she went
and why." Without thinking, the dragonfly darted down. Suddenly he hit the surface of
the water and bounced away. Now that he was a dragonfly, he could no longer go
into the water...
"I can't return!" he said in dismay. "At
least, I tried. But I can't keep my promise. Even if I could go back, not one
of the water bugs would know me in my new body. I guess I'll just have to wait until they become
dragonflies too. Then they'll understand what has happened to me, and where I
went."
And the dragonfly winged off happily into its wonderful new
world of sun and air.......
From: "Waterbugs and Dragonflies : Explaining Death to
Young Children"
by Doris Stickney
This evening while looking in various books I came across a little book that Grandma bought me many years ago - "To a very special Granddaughter".
Tucked inside was a a copy of one of the
poems from the book in Grandma's handwriting that she had re worded.
When I wake up feeling old
and its dark outside and wet and cold
I gloom a little - and then I say
"Oh never mind - today's the day you come, and i must get cooking and spreading Flora and sandwich making, for bacon butties
How glittering and bright the rain
and I feel that I am young again
There is another poem in the book that again I wondered if it was appropriate -
Take
with you into your future all my love. All the things we have seen
together, all the music we have heard, all the people we have met and
loved, all the secrets, all the gigglings, all the mischiefs we have
made. Ill come with you as far as I'm allowed along your road - and
when we part you'll take with you my hopes and half my heart. 
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