Self Mirroring--Bees

Where will you be in 5 years? 10? 20?

So often we ponder where we want to be so we can plan ahead and get to those places. Let us not forget to reflect on where we WERE so we can learn from past mistakes, remember past loves, shake our heads at the places we have come from.

So...where was I, 5 years ago? 10? 20? (or 3, 21, & 38-ish)

Three years ago (3 years and 2 weeks, to be more precise...) I was recovering after being stung 50 times by Africanized Honey Bees. I am convinced that the quick thinking and superb care by Kathleen Katt are what kept me safe and on a quick road to recovery. I also think it was because I didn't freak out, stayed calm, and focused on keeping adrenaline from carrying more bee venom throughout my body. Possibly almost too well...at one point, Dr. Katt was worried that my blood pressure was too low.

Fast forward to 2014. I still, every-once-in-awhile, have my scalp swell a little, itch, and hurt. I think it is still a reaction to the bee attack as I'll feel small bumps in similar places to where they were after it first happened.

Jump back to 1993 (21 years ago). I was hiking on Wedding Cake Mountain (Hill?) in Rota. I was with my then husband (Steve Wright) and two of my cousins. We hiked up to the top, looked at the view, and started back down. As I was walking, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my right leg. Then I felt another one! What the heck!? I got stung twice by bees on Rota. The cousins (both male) were having an intense discussion several yards away. Finally, the younger one looked like he lost whatever argument they were having and walked up to me, looking sheepish.

Shyly he said, "There's a local treatment for our bee stings."

"What is it?" I asked.

"Um...uh,...peeing on it," he said. He blushed and didn't want to meet my eyes.

I said, "Oh."

We hiked back down the hill, went home, told the rest of the family what happened, watching my leg swell to twice its normal size.

I took a Benedryl to help the swelling go down.

Today, I wish I'd peed on it, just to see what happened.


Make one more big jump back, 38-ish years. I was about 4 years old. We were at a fellowship gathering at someone's house after church. This person was a bee-keeper. All of us kids were hovering around the food (buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken) and joking that, "This bucket is mine! You can have that one!" and laughing at the thought of eating the entire bucket of chicken on our own.

A fly buzzed my forehead. I brushed it away and kept being silly with my friends. It buzzed my head again. Again, I brushed it away. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain on my forehead. It was the worst thing I'd ever felt in my entire short life! I screamed and cried and swiped at my forehead, trying to make the pain stopped. My dad picked me up and figured out that it was a bee. Someone got some ice and Dad held it to my forehead. I eventually subsided to quiet sobs and tried to figure out how something so small could cause so much pain. On the upside, I got the first piece of chicken.


Now...

Normally I would ask myself where I see my self in the future (a practice of standing in the middle and looking both directions of my path). But. I think today, I'm just going to reflect on the past and just Be right here, right now.