The Wasp Story

There comes a point in every relationship where I feel inclined to share "The Wasp Story", which for me is a lived example of spiritual "medicine".

When I was around 8 years old, I was playing a game with my sister in the front yard of our babysitter's (little town in the 80's, you know how it was for children if you grew up during that time). During the game, I hit a tree that had smaller plants growing at its base, and was stung almost 30 times as I ran away, screaming.

That resulted in a two-decade long fear of anything buzzing in the air around me, which usually had me hitting the deck or running away from whatever it was. One day, I got tired of that fear having such a presence in my life, and decided to face it.

Shortly after that decision, I was driving from work (I was living in Georgia at the time) and saw a field on the side of the road, being scouted by a bunch of flying insects. I pulled over my car and went a little ways into that field, discovering that the flying insects were bald-faced hornets. I was terrified, but I stuck to my resolve and sat down. For what seemed like an hour or two, I sat there as they flew around in the grass, willing myself to stay still and watch. At some point, my adrenaline subsided and I relaxed, seeing the creatures for more than their stinger. I finally saw the whole insect, which didn't care about me being there (I luckily did not encounter their nest). At that moment, wasps stopped being evil and scary, and simultaneously became an obsession.

Like a switch was flipped, I became insatiable for knowledge about them, getting books and looking up whatever I could find on the web. My friends and family quickly learned about this new obsession of mine and got me little things, like books or resin-encased wasp carapaces. That same year, I designed my first wasp tattoo and got it on my left arm, then I built an environment in which I would raise my own wasp nest. To my chagrin, my partner at the time did not let me keep my wasp obelisk inside the house we lived in at the time, so it ran its course in the garage for months the following year.

Wasps symbolize feminine power, community and creativity.