The Dragonfly Story
Below the surface of a quiet pond lived a colony of water bugs. Far from the sun, they were a happy bunch, busy digging in and scurrying over the soft mud bottom. They noticed that every once in a while, one of their group would lose interest in digging and scurrying, cling to the stem of a pond lily, and gradually climb the stalk until it was out of sight. They would never see it again.
“Look. One of our colony is climbing the lily stalk. Where do you think she’s going?” Up, up, up it slowly climbed, and as the group watched, the water bug disappeared from sight. Its friends waited and waited, but she didn’t return. “That’s strange,” said one water bug to another. “Wasn’t she happy here?” asked a second. “Where do you suppose she went?” wondered a third.
Puzzled, no one had an answer. Finally, a leader in the colony, gathered his friends. “I have an idea. The next one of us who climbs the lily stalk must promise to come back and tell us where he or she went, and why.”
“”We promise,” they solemnly agreed.
One spring day, not long after, the water bug who had suggested the plan found himself climbing the lily stalk. Up, up, up he went. Before he knew what was happening, he had broken through the surface of the water, dropped to the broad green lily pad, and fallen asleep.
When he woke, he looked around in surprise and could hardly 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 weighty wings, but could not. When the warmth of the sun had dried the moisture from his new body, he moved his wings and suddenly found himself high above the water. He had become a dragonfly.
He dipped and swooped in great curves as he flew through the air, exhilarated in the new atmosphere. By and by, the new dragonfly lighted happily on a lily pad to rest. He chanced to look below to the bottom of the pond . . . he was right above his old friends, the water bugs. They were digging and scurrying, just as he had been doing some time before.
He remembered the promise: The next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk will come back and tell us where he or she went, and why. Without thinking, the dragonfly darted down. He hit the surface of the water and bounced away . . . now that he was a dragonfly, he could no longer go into the water.
He was dismayed. “I can’t return. I tried, but cannot keep my promise. And even if I could go back, not one of the water bugs would recognize me in my new body. I’ll just have to wait until they become dragonflies. Then they’ll understand what has happened to me, and where I went.” The dragonfly winged off happily into its wonderful new world of sun and air.
--Author Unknown
