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  > About Nola > The Waterbug Story Event Calendar
The Waterbug Story
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Doris Stickney first published this story in 1971; it was revised and expanded in 1982 to become Water Bugs and Dragonflies. The story has a special place in Nola's heart, as it was a favorite of her mentor Jack Boland's. The version below is from a recording of Jack telling the story in his own words...
It seemed that a colony of water bugs, lived in the muck at the bottom of a lily pond. They were happy, normal, every day water bugs. But, they were happy except for one mystery. They could not understand why every now and then, one of their number would crawl up the stem of a lily pad and never be seen again. So, one day, one member of the water bug colony called a meeting of all the water bugs. And he said, "Look, this keeps happening, we don't understand what's happening. Let's make a pact right now, that the next one of us that crawls up one of these lily stems will come back and tell us what's happened to him or to her!" And would you believe it, just at that precise moment, that very water bug who had called the meeting had an irresistible urge to climb the stem of a lily pad, and he began to do so.

The dragonfly is a powerful spiritual symbolAnd laboriously he found himself, within time, at the bottom of the lily pad, and flung himself over, exhausted onto the top of the lily pad, into the sunlight, a new element. It was a whole new dimension for him. After some time he awakened, and for the first time in his life, he felt himself to be encased by a stiff, brittle coating. But something in him urged him to beat against it with all his might, and the hard shell cracked, and he rose a beautiful blue-green dragonfly skimming over the surface of the pond on gleaming wings.

And as he flew back and forth across the pond, looking down into it, in his imagination, he could see his family and friends there, still in the muck, still water bugs, seemingly happy, enjoying themselves… and wondering what had happened to him! And he said to himself, "I can't go back! I can't. I can't go back and tell them! But one day, each of them will discover for themselves what is happening to me. They will all have the same marvelous experience!!

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