This morning, I found a hornet, half-way buried in a dish of grape jelly, swaying in a hefty breeze as it hung from my deck’s railing; the jelly is there to provide sustenance for Baltimore Orioles, passing through our area, on their way further north. Not, for hornets to suck from its sweet, sticky, substance.
I’m not fond of hornets because, at eleven, I stepped into a hornets’ nest while blueberry picking with family members. Soon, their angry little faces were poking into my ankles, legs, and arms; before I was able to respond, they had crept under my shirt and shorts. While running away from them, heading further into the woods, I screamed bloody murder. My mother, who was chasing after me, yelled, “Stop, stop, I have to get them off of you!” was struck in the head by the one-quart stainless steel pan that I tossed over my shoulder while jumping over a fallen log.
Eventually, catching up to me, using her bare hands, my mother bravely removed dozens of hornets attached to my torso, underarms, back, butt, and well, you know, all body parts. Remembering what she knew about folk medicine, she grabbed fistfuls of wet soil, plastering its muddy strength over my body.
In the meantime, my father, who was blueberry picking at the top of a nearby hill, fearful that I’d come across a bear, ran downhill as fast as his long thin legs would take him, sprained his right ankle, becoming immobilized, he was heard calling to my brother for help.
I don’t remember if witnesses observed our pathetic-looking group as we hobbled out of the woods - my brother and a male cousin carrying my father, the growing red swollenness covering my body, the large bump on my mother’s forehead - while we carried empty pans where blueberries should have been brimming from their tops.
You might imagine that, today, on a gorgeous summer-like morning, I would have been reticent to stick my fingers into gooey purple jelly to save the life of a drowning hornet. Truthfully, I did hesitate for a second before poking my index finger under the hornets rear end, pushing her onto the glass container’s edge then onto the deck’s wooden railing.
Here’s where the intelligence of insects comes into the story.
Looking at her body covered with thick grape jelly, I thought for sure she was a gonner. But, while watching over her for about ten minutes, I became mesmerized by her cleverness. One by one, she returned each of her six legs to its prior, fully-operable, state by pulling each of her legs along the deck’s weathered wood, thereby removing the thick goo that had previously saturated her jagged legs.
She continued her cleansing process by removing all traces of jelly from her black-striped, bright yellow abdomen by dragging it along the deck’s railing, periodically flicking her pudgy self, thus removing any evidence of the jelly’s presence.
Imagining she was feeling a little less weighty after shaking her entire body for about ten seconds, I watched as she flapped her wings, flinging their overlay of wet-jelly into the wind, flying away like nothing had happened.
I said good-bye and good luck, and I meant it.
Marveling at the hornet’s instinct to survive, I’ve, once again, walked away feeling inspired by nature’s resiliency, and a little less wary of hornets flying around our backyard.
I’m certain that all of nature’s beings have a purpose; what exactly hornets’ role is in the balance of our mighty Earth Mother, I certainly don’t know. But, I do know and believe in the magic of nature’s bounty that’s in our midsts with our every breath and blink of our eyes.
Also true, is that even the tiniest of insects, including New England’s prolifiration of black flies and the airplane-sized mosquitoes we swat away from us all summer, are mysteriously, in some way, important to the balance of life on Earth. When you step outdoors, please remember to honor all of Mother Earth’s magic and beauty because, if she’s to survive the generational damage perpetrated by humans, she needs our attention, encouragement, and action, right now, and not a minute later.
Thank you for your cheers and prayers as I’ve been steadily writing and preparing my memoir to send to my editor by the end of July.
I send you blessings and good wishes for a pleasant Memorial Day weekend; whether you’re going to a parade, placing flowers on someone’s grave, gathering for a family barbeque, or sitting at home reading a good book, let’s all take a moment to remember those who’ve given their lives in service to our freedom.
Dory
Beautiful post, Dory! I love how you move from past to present to future. And I so agree that we need to honor our insect neighbors, even the ones that annoy us! We can find ways to get along that don’t involve poisonous chemicals! Hornets and yellow jackets are vicious when disturbed but they just want to be left alone, they only strike in self-defense. Sorry about that childhood experience! Sounds traumatic for all!
Strange, or perhaps simply grace, how everyone, everything is teacher to those who are willing to learn, isn’t it?