Sunday, September 4, 2011

Just above my nose...

It was a beautiful August evening - one of those nights with a warm gentle breeze and cicadas tuning up for a full performance as the sun sank lower in the sky. Thunderstorms were in the forecast for the next day, which meant lawn work needed to get done. It also meant the dog-walkers wanted to get full benefit of this late summer evening. The bushes were almost trimmed when a couple of dog-walkers stopped at a tree out by the road. They pointed, stared upward, and seemed enraptured by something more interesting than just leaves and branches.

"Hey, did you know there's a beehive in that tree?"
We looked over at the tree - and saw leaves and branches.
"Ohhh...
it's a BIG one!"

We walked towards the tree and continued to see... the tree... until we walked around the side and looked up - at the biggest thing hanging in a tree that I ever remembered seeing. It was unlike any hive I've ever seen in my life... because it wasn't just a beehive...

It was a HORNET'S nest.
Compared to hives I've seen, it was the Trump Tower!

It
was...
HUGE...


and it was a busy place - actively ACTIVE hornets were flying in and out of the entry hole and swarming around their meeting place. I wasn't going close, nor did I have a good plan as to how get rid of this thing! Trying to spray or knock this thing down could result in a fierce army of angry hornets being unleashed in a quietly peaceful neighborhood.

Not a good idea...


As I looked up, fascinated by this surprising discovery, I thought of life, and how hornets' nest of sorts are built and exist unknown and unheeded as we busily live our daily lives - totally unaware.

"Hornets" of life - destructive agents - build and congregate and we are clueless until
someone looks up...
and stops...
stares...
and is amazed...
by what has happened...
and has no idea of how to eradicate the structure without a mass catastrophe of consequence.

Fascinatingly dangerous.
Hidden from plain sight, yet just above our noses. Makes me wonder...
How many hornets' nest are likewise...
around me...?

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