by

Stung

It’s the end of November and wasps are supposed to be hibernating right? There I was standing in my hallway doing laundry on a cold Sunday afternoon and I felt something on my neck. I reached back and was immediately stung by a wasp just as I grabbed it and threw it away from me. I have no idea where it came from, but it occurs to me that as a metaphor, getting stung by something that came out of nowhere is kind of how it goes sometimes. I am not talking about deep emotional hurt or loss here, but rather the unfortunate occurance, the disappointment, the slap in the face that kind of shocks you. I suppose I am fortunate that I don’t have an allergy (this isn’t the first time I have been stung) and I am glad it stung me instead of my daughter who was standing with me and who was very concerned that something had hurt her dad (we are supposed to be invincible). It hurt and swelled up briefly, but the pain went away pretty quickly and I am left wondering whether there are more wasps lurking and waiting to sting again.

There are all sorts of learnings here about getting over the sting quickly and not allowing it to make us afraid and those are probably the most important things, but it’s no fun having to get stung to learn those lessons. I once fell into a nest and was stung more than fifty times, but the difference is that it was my fault. I trampled their nest and they were defending it. Today it just happened. Sometimes we can’t predict, we can’t really prepare and even when we don’t do anything to deserve it we can get stung. I hold no grudge, but I also don’t plan on making friends with a wasp anytime soon. In the long run it’s how we deal with the setbacks, how we recover from the times we are stung that ultimately will defines us. It’s never about moving on and forgetting, it’s about learning and carrying on in the face of the harsh and the difficult. Sometimes we get stung, but we can’t let it paralyze us, we can instead choose to be made stronger by it.
Then again, maybe I am grasping at metaphors and the reality is, I actually did get stung by a wasp so perhaps the lesson is simply: “don’t grab at wasps; they might sting you.”

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