How *Holdin' Dragonflies* came to be
I started making jewelry about a year before my second oldest son, Holden, passed away. I had been looking for a name for my jewelry before that time and hadn't found anything that really stuck. At my son's funeral our church leader read this story:
The Dragonfly
Down below the surface of a quiet pond, lived a 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 intrest in going about with their friends. 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 climing up the lily stock. Where do you suppose she is going?"
Up, up, up it went slowly. 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 bug to another.
"Wasn't she happy here?" asked another bug. "Where do you suppose she went?"
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 stock must promise to come back and tell us where he or she went and why."
"We promise," they all said solemnly.
One spring day, not long after, the very water bug who had suggested the plan found himself climbing the lily stock. Up, up, up he went. Before he knew what was happening he had broken through the surface of the water, and fallen onto a 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 released 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 his new body. He moved his wings again, and suddenly he found himself up above the water. He had become a dragonfly.
Then the dragonfly remembered his promise, "The next one of us who climbs the lily stock will come back and tell us where he or she went and why."
Without thinking, the water bug 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 will understand what happened to me and where I went."
And the dragonfly winged off happily into its wonderful new world of sun and air.
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After hearing this story, dragonflies became very significant to me and I began putting them in a lot of my jewelry. Later on, a friend and I (thank you Suzie) were brain-storming and came up with the name *Holdin' Dragonflies* as a play on Holden's name and the significance of dragonflies. Ta -Da. That was in 2005 and I've been making jewelry for family, friends and my neighborhood eversince.
