So, I'm walking home from the train, my mind lost in thought, when all of a sudden, I get this electric pain in the back of my left calf. My legs and hands know what it is before my brain does. "Yow!!!" I find myself about 15 feet further down the sidewalk, looking back at a half-dozen or so yellow jackets flying in and out of a nest near where I was struck.
I suppose it's human nature to be angry at the yellow jackets, and certainly I don't appreciate the sting. But they are handsome insects, and the pain is nothing in comparison to value of the message: Be humble, you're not all that there is.
Peace
2 comments:
leave it to the beautiful yellowjacket to remind us of our duty to respect nature on her own terms
i'm impressed with your diplomatic response
someone else might've found the nearest hardwarestore and addressed the matter with RAID
all is grace
j
jh—
Last year, when there was a yellow jacket nest under my front steps, and I got a half-dozen bites while trying to rake the leaves, that's how I dealt with it.
But I don't begrudge the yellow jackets their existence. Today's nest is one that I can give a bit of distance to without much inconvenience. So it's easy to let them be, and admire them for what they are.
Sometimes grace is easier than others.
Thank you for your thoughts.
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