Douges Days: The Rambo Syndrome

This last Wednesday I was feeling very motivated. I wanted to ensure that on my husbands up and coming break from work we would have plenty of time to spend together instead of having to do yard work and house work.

So for the first time since we moved in beside that one time when Josh went to get a drink of water, I mowed the lawn all by myself. Despite my capability to change my own oil, fix general odds and ends around the house, mowing the lawn is the one thing Dad never taught/made me do, thus I have always shied way from the big grumbling machines in fear that I would break it. Or it would break me.

Anyhow that is not the point of this story, I just wanted to emphasize the fact of how much I don't like and don't know about lawn mowers. So I managed to mow all the lawns (in my bikini no less, so I got a fantastic tan) even though I had to turn off the mower every time I emptied the catch because I was afraid my hands would get pulled into that perpetually angry motor. Which come to find out it, is impossible to do because they make a safety guard or something, Josh explained this later.

Once I had finished my incredibly awesome lawn mowing job and I was feeling extremely accomplished, it had only taken me half the day (It takes Josh about an hour). I decided I shouldn't stop there, I should weed the over grown flower beds as well.

I got about half way through the flower bed when Aaron, my brother-in-law who lives with us, came home. He was impressed with my efforts for the day and after I was done gloating and being proud of myself I went back to weeding, while Aaron put the lawn mower away for me, because every time I tried to put it in the shed it would roll backwards on top of me.

As I reached down to get another weed, my back (still in my bikini) brushed against one of our little mini palm fronds, and there was instant pain.

This is the little fella who stung me I am presuming, because he is the little guardian.

They're busy rebuilding the nest.

Aren't they kind of cute. I wish I had got a photo of the nest before I destroyed it :(

You wouldn't even know they are there. The middle one is their home.

My brain immediately jumped the worst conclusions, perhaps a mini Australian snake I hadn't heard about had bitten me and I was about to die! or maybe it was one of the MANY poisonous spiders that could paralyze me in seconds. Of course as I was calmly thinking all of this through I was yelling and screaming at Aaron to check if it was one or two dots. ONE OR TWO DOTS AARON! I needed to know if I had merely been stung, because as far as I was aware there weren't any stinging insects that could kill me, but this is Australia after all.

So as my life flashed before my eyes Aaron assured me it was one mark and I informed him to take me to the hospital if I started acting loopie in the next hour.

As I walked back to where I had been weeding I began to investigate who the culprit must have been, a big Green Ant (that apparently only hurt me because I have American blood that isn't immune) or perhaps a bee, which definitely seem bigger in this country.

Then I saw it! A little wasp nest hanging down from the palm frond. They were these tiny little wasps that i had never seen before, all black and almost cute! There were some tending to the nest and some standing guard, there could have only been about 10 wasps in total.

Of course after seeing the little creatures and knowing they weren't going to hurt me again I decided to leave the alone, right? WRONG! I wanted revenge, I quickly called one of my muscles over (Aaron) to finish off the job. He used his sandal to swat the nest down. While the desperate wasps buzzed around in confused despair I justified my actions in my head by thinking, well I couldn't leave them there to sting Douges, that just wouldn't be right. Even though I'm pretty sure those bugs had been there a lot longer than Douges had.

Now here is the point of this rambling story, I went out to have a look at where the wasps nest was yesterday and to my surprise the little fellas were rebuilding their nest. This was their home and they wanted to stay there.

It got me thinking, that we are just like those little wasps. We stay in our own little world, we build, we stay close with those that are close to us, while others work silently beside us. Then the minute someone new tries to reach out and touch us we hurt them before they can hurt us. I'm sure that not everyone does this, but I know I do. I have tried (whether on purpose or not) to shut down people that are threatening to change my world before they even get a chance to say hello. And then by natural human reaction, just like us react like I did and want revenge for what you've done.

There are a million other metaphores I could have got from this like risilience and having faith that God will help you rebuild and blah....but I think this is what God wanted me to take away from my little wasp encounter. So as I itch the little welt on my back I remember that God can use anyone to disrupt our lives to get our attention and whether or not I try to sting them before they even get close out of fear or I welcome them with love is my choice.

Douges decided to do a photoshoot for you all while I was getting photos of the wasps.