Random Act of Metaphor: A Last Minute Wasp

Hmmm, are you attuned to recognize the small gifts life offers?

It happens now and then at the end of my regular nature hikes. My cranky back starts barking at me and warning me it is time to head back to my car. I have learned from experience that I must heed this warning.

As I am making my way back to the parking lot, I usually have my camera slung over my shoulder on its strap rather than cradled in my hand at the ready. I am not expecting anything notable to present itself.

But sometimes chance steps in as it did earlier this week. The Gold-marked Thread-waisted Wasp, one of the most elegant looking wasps in this area, dropped onto the ground in front of me as I was just steps from the parking lot.

I swung the camera off my shoulder and managed one quick shot before the wasp took flight again. Fortunately, the position of the wasp on the ground and the lighting at that particular moment was optimum for a very good photograph.

This chance encounter offered a life lesson: Life can present a small gift at any time without notice. Sometimes that gift is the highlight of the day.

A Gold-marked Thread-waisted Wasp appearing at just the right moment in just the right setting – a random act of metaphor to remind me that life’s best gifts are often the unexpected and easily overlooked ones. Being aware and ready to recognize these gifts is a life skill we all need to cultivate.

~  Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet

~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .

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