September 14, 2006: Love in the Dew

[wolf]

I was menaced by a praying mantis at work the other night.

I was peacefully standing outside on the porch and I noticed a mid-sized mantis (about 4 inches) clinging to the door to the nuthouse.

I was admiring it when it suddenly decided that I looked like a better perch than the glass door. It leapt at my chest, in a particularly aggressive manner.

I screamed. No. I didn't. I shrieked.

They aren't used to hearing me shriek at work.

It had a particularly vicious streak in it, so noting my discomfort, it lept onto my bare arm and started making it's way toward my face.

So I shrieked a lot. Again.

Now, of course, this is a Praying Mantis. Like everyone else I have know since childhood that they are cool, nice helpful insects, and they eat other icky bugs, and they do all kinds of cool things. I also, like everyone else, know incorrectly, that it's against the law to kill one.

My coworkers came running to my rescue, but once it was established that my attacker wasn't Bob the Crazy Guy who Sleeps on the Porch Sometimes getting angry over us not being able to give him coffee any longer they wandered off, leaving me to deal with this beast from outer space.

With lots of saying of "eeeuaw, eeeuaw, eeeeuaw" I gently tried to coax the thing onto my hand so I could return it to the garden where it clearly belonged. Instead, it decided that it would be much happier in the foyer, causing me to have to chase it around a small enclosed area.

It eventually responded to my entreaties to move outside.

(PRAYING MANTIS – Spiritual Realms. Praying Mantis brings you a strong, clear connection to the spiritual realms. It facilitates moving beyond the visible and everyday and supports devotion to Spirit.)