My husband and I were away last weekend visiting a friend's vision therapy clinic. Matthew wanted to get ideas how to better assist his patients and become more efficient. It was a nice trip. We went without the kids thanks to some super awesome friends here and we went skiing. It was nice to get away from reality for a few days. Monday at lunch, one of Matthew's staff that came with us who is also a friend asked if I had checked my e-mail that day. I had not checked it all weekend, but she said I should and that something tragic had happened to a little girl from our school. Sure enough, I was shocked to discover another 7 year old from our school was killed by two dogs while visiting some family friends.
Having been through the loss of a child, my heart ached for this family knowing what they must be going through. Friday night my husband and I went to a social to raise money for the funeral for the little girl and Saturday I went to her funeral. I sat behind a row of kids from her class. The kids were sobbing especially one little boy who had spent a great deal of time in daycare with the little girl. I hardly knew the girl, but cried as well. The funeral was beautiful and really honoured her life. There was one story shared that I particularly enjoyed and I thought was great for all the children there. I looked it up after I got home.
It is called Waterbugs and Dragonflies by Doris Stickney
Waterbugs and Dragonflies : Explaining Death to Young Children"
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 awhile 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
by Doris Stickney
I was curious if this is infact the life cycle of a dragonfly, starting out in water, so I looked it up. Wikipedia says, "Female dragonflies lay eggs in or near water, often on floating or emergent plants. When laying eggs, some species will submerge themselves completely in order to lay their eggs on a good surface. The eggs then hatch into naiads. Most of a dragonfly's life is spent in the naiad form, beneath the water's surface, using extendable jaws to catch otherinvertebrates (often mosquito larvae) or even vertebrates such as tadpoles and fish.[3] They breathe through gills in their rectum, and can rapidly propel themselves by suddenly expelling water through the anus.[4] Some naiads even hunt on land,[5] an aptitude that could easily have been more common in ancient times when terrestrial predators were clumsier.
The larval stage of large dragonflies may last as long as five years. In smaller species, this stage may last between two months and three years. When the naiad is ready to metamorphose into an adult, it climbs up a reed or other emergent plant. Exposure to air causes the naiad to begin breathing. The skin splits at a weak spot behind the head and the adult dragonfly crawls out of its larval skin, pumps up its wings, and flies off to feed on midges and flies. In flight the adult dragonfly can propel itself in six directions; upward, downward, forward, back, and side to side.[6] The adult stage of larger species of dragonfly can last as long as five or six months."'
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