The Day The Queen Came To Stay

The Path is a metaphor for Life Itself. A way to access the inherent wisdom of life through our own life. Our True Nature. However, The Path isn't just about physically walking (I just do that for pleasure!) therefore we don't have to be out physically walking to learn form life, we can simply pay attention to whatever is happening around us and inside us, wherever we are.

I awoke the other morning to the sound of three wasps in my bedroom. A little excessive, I thought. A short while later my son informed me there was also a wasp downstairs. Alarm bells very sleepily began to ring. (Black and yellow stripes are used as a warning of danger in both the human and the animal world). Once I'd helped the upstairs wasps make their way out of the window I went downstairs to find a total of four wasps hovering around the living room. It was baffling as all the windows and doors were closed, but eventually we realised they were coming down the chimney stack and out from behind the TV. 

I'm not overly worried by wasps but all the same I didn't want them in my house especially around the children trying to get ready for school, and they did seem to be growing in numbers. Despite noticing the odd wasp buzzing around outside the house as well, all I could do was open the windows and patiently wait for them to leave, quickly shutting them again once each one was gone. Killing is not normally an option for me but it's interesting, as a mother, how the lioness mentality of protect at all costs kicks in when in the midst of a perceived threat to our children, and so I called Pest Control and they agreed to come before noon.

Once the children were safely out of the situation I decided to go against all my survival instincts and open all the windows and doors. It seemed by keeping them closed I was actually containing the wasps in the house which was the reason they were amassing. From that point on, they simply left as quickly as they arrived. Something felt serene about the situation, like the natural cycle of life was being allowed to flow. When the Pest Guy arrived, he checked with me once again You're sure they're wasps because if they're bee's we can't touch them? Yes, I confirmed, absolutely sure I knew the difference.

As it turned out they were honey bee's. I felt a sense of relief that there was not going to be mass genocide in my home after all but also a sense of Damn, now what! The Pest Guy informed me I needed a beekeeper who would taken them away and re-house them (though I'm sure he didn't use those exact words) but, he said, if the Queen is just stopping off for a rest with all her troops in tow (again, my words) then it's possible once she resumes her travels the rest will simply follow. It sounded a little too simple to be true but for the rest of the day I kind of enjoyed sharing a space with the bee's, them busily doing their thing and me, mine. Stopping once in a while to pause and appreciate their beauty, which was easier by the afternoon as they were a little more docile - as was I.

By the next morning they were gone, and all I was left with was appreciation for The Day The Queen Came To Stay :-)

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