There are just some insects…..
I love all living things. BUT there are just some insects that I can’t figure out what their purpose is to be here. I have a list: mosquitoes. ticks, fleas, gnats, and flies. I am sure there are more, but those are my main five. All are annoying, but most carry disease, some deadly. What is their purpose? So far I cannot find one good thing.
When I see them coming….
I have gnats in my face during my walk with the dogs in the morning. I have mosquitoes feasting on me when I sit outside. Flies come in the house and buzz around my ear and sit on any food available. Ticks and fleas attack my dogs and cat, if I don’t put nasty chemicals on them to prevent the 6 legged from attack. Plus ticks and mosquitoes carry horrible disease, such as malaria and Lyme’s disease. So when I see them coming, I swat! I do get people to wave at me when I am swatting gnats away from my face on my walks. People think I am saying hello. If they only knew what I was really doing.
So what is their purpose?
Perhaps their purpose is how to deal with adversity without doing harm. We are in that struggle right now with fellow humans. We can’t hose down fellow humans for whom we find annoying with chemicals that would kill them. Although in our past and maybe our present, we have. We cannot squish them until they are dead or just suffering. Although we have done that. In fact. all of the deadly and harmful ways we have chosen to deal with annoying insect pests to kill them we have done to each other when faced with adversity. How can I deal with annoying insects in a constructive way, without harm, and get along? Once I find the answer to that, I presume I will also have the answer to how to treat fellow humans with whom I have adversity in the same gentle, compassionate way. I send all of them love, with all my heart, with all my might and with all my mind. What way will you choose to cope with annoyances and adversity?
Until next time, Love. Connect. Transform.
Hi Donna! That Buddhist doctrine of non-harming comes to mind as a result of your blog. I’ve tried to follow this as much as possible. Yet plants are also living things, and even if we’re vegans (which I’m NOT!) we are still taking the lives of other beings in order to survive. So there is definitely a paradox of living in that we must destroy life to maintain our own…
Yes, I have become more aware of some of the functions and purposes of other life forms. I was a vegetarian for many years because of the cruelty imposed onto the animals who were raised on factory farms for our consumption. I did not want to contribute to that cruelty by buying their products. But I realize I am part of the food chain and since that buck stops with humans, the animals must be here as part of their purpose to provide nutrition to us. Now I buy meats and other animal products from those raised only humanely with respect and caring even to the point of their death. I give thanks to them when I am about to eat my meals. I feel like I have found another part of the cycle of life. Lovely.
Maybe they are food for something else. Bats eat mosquitos. You need bats! This is my first year gardening and I’ve learned so much from one of my friends. I had a hornworm on my tomato plant. They are destructive little things BUT they also host wasp larvae. While my hornworm did enjoy some leaves from my tomato plant, the warsp larvae ate him from the inside out. And the wasps are beneficial insects to the ecosystem.
Aphids. They don’t really hurt the plant but they are food for ladybugs. I suspect I’ll be seeing several very soon.
I’ve had a few monarch caterpillars and some other new, interesting bugs I’ve never seen before. Like, the grapevine beetle who lost his way and ended up on my pepper plant. My question this summer is HOW DO THEY FIND THE RIGHT PLANT?? How did that hornworm find my tomato plant? Where was he before that? How far did he travel to get there? How will the ladybugs find the aphids. They are the size of a pinhead! It’s not like the ladybugs are just cruising around and spotting them from the sky.
This is an amazing planet. Everything is designed to work together. The magnitude at which this happens is astounding. It’s humbling and takes my breath away.
Yes, yes and yes!!! Everything has purpose. Sometimes the things that annoy us the most have the greatest lesson for us to learn. There is a magical world around us wherever we look. The gift you have of delving into the world of plants and insects is so wonderful! You know, even on the human body we host so much life we aren’t even aware of. For instance, there are microscopic mites that live on our eyelids and they eat what comes out of our eyes. If they weren’t there, our eyes would be almost glued shut every morning. Is that cool or what? Thank you for commenting and for telling me about my need to approve comments for them to show up. Opened a whole new world for me. There were lots of comments there. YAY!!!!!
I learned so much about insects from your comment. Thank you. Nature is always in balance whether we humans know it or not. Your first sentence said it all and expressed their reason for being. Love it!
Hey Donna – your thoughts on these insects that we have a hard time accepting, let alone appreciating, brought a lot of ideas to mind. Thanks for your thoughts. Here are some of mine.
First of all – I remember reading in one of my favorite books, Mutant Message Downunder, about an American doctor going on walk-a-about with a group of Aborigines. She discussed how the flies would swarm them and cover their bodies completely – which totally flipped her out. Her host travellers told her the flies cleaned off the dead skin and inside their nostrils so they could breathe more easily, and with her tiny nostrils and all the toxins leaving her body – she really needed the “treatment” more than they did. She didn’t relish it after that but was able to allow it.
I remember, too, a time when I was being harassed by my two immediate bosses, because I wasn’t following a travelling schedule that they thought would be most effective for me. They sent me very judgemental emails every week and their nit-picking probably lasted for about 2 months until I decided I was doing the best job possible for my customers, myself and my company and I didn’t really care what they thought. Within two days, my sales manager was fired and two days later the regional manager was also let go. In this case, my managers were my biggest teachers in re-minding me about and accepting total responsibility for who and what I am and do.
And, finally, I have been studying A Course in Miracles recently and a sentence really jumped out at me from the teachings there. “The purpose of the world you see is to obscure your function of forgiveness, and provide you with a justification for forgetting.” I think this sentence is saying exactly what you are. We may have no idea why something is the way it is, but by trusting that Source does have a plan, we can offer our love, honor and forgiveness (towards ourselves as well as the “others”) and lessen, eliminate or at least change our perception of the annoyance.
BTW – Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and information about your gifts with all of us on your blog and website.
Thank you so much for this beautiful comment Lanna. I stepped away from my blog for awhile and I am back now. I am finally learning about how this whole blog thing works and will be more diligent with my replies. I especially love your story about the two bosses. By your steadfastness alone in knowing your strength and sense of purpose you created another place for those bosses to be and no longer in your life. You did not wish them ill will and their next job may be better suited for them. I remember that part in the book about the flies. I remember cringing at first until I understood the purpose. The Aborigines have learned to be part of nature, to work with nature and to be well. We, who live in the world of concrete, asphalt and chemicals, would do well to learn that we too are part of nature and to partake in Her wisdom.
Oh Lana, that was beautiful. You said it all. I have not responded sooner because I did not realize I need to approve comments before they are posted. Live and learn and that is constant with websites. I appreciate your comment very much. Everything has a reason and when we discover that the adversity in our lives too has a reason it is so rewarding. We follow the path of least resistance by trusting in our selves and the thing that we could have resisted falls away, just like inefficient managers. Lovely teaching story. Thanks!