When Nature Attacks

It has been a challenging summer here in North Carolina. We’ve had extreme heat, drought, tornadoes, an earthquake and a hurricane. But last week, just to prove that Mother Nature can be kind as well as cruel, the weather turned gloriously beautiful. The temperature dropped and the skies became crystal-clear Carolina blue.  I grabbed a book and a Diet Coke and headed outside to enjoy the reprieve. Everything was perfect. 

Then an ant bit me. Then another one bit me. And it hurt like crazy.

To fully appreciate the impact of what I’m telling you, it’s important to understand that I'm not talking about those pesky house ants that want to swim in your sugar bowl. Nope. Here in North Carolina we have fire ants, and they are aptly named. Not because they having boy-scout caliber fire-starting skills, but because being bitten by one of these ants is like being jabbed with a burning cigarette. If these creatures end up in a movie, it won’t be in a cute Disney film, I can promise you that. They are vicious.

As I was rubbing ointment across the fiery red bite-marks, I couldn’t help but wonder why these little monsters bit me. Had I accidentally put my foot on their home? Had I threatened them in some way? But, as best as I could tell, the answer was “no” on both counts. I was just minding my own business when they came along and did what fire ants do. They bite people. The angry red bite marks said very little about me but they said a whole lot about fire ants. Biting is in their nature.

And that is the way it is with some people, too. They bite. They snap. They hurt you. And for no identifiable reason. You’re just sitting there, minding your own business, and then…BAM. You get bitten. But hear me friends, if you can honestly say that you did nothing to provoke such bad treatment, then the attack says far more about the “biter” than it does about you. Stop holding resentment and grudges against that person. Rub some ointment on it, and move on. This wasn’t about you.

Fire Ants do what Fire Ants do. Haters do what Haters do. You will not change them. Viciousness is in their nature. Complaining because they are what they are will not make them become something else. If they ever change their nature, it will be because they chose to do so. It is outside the scope of your control. 

Don’t let another person’s poverty of character rob you of your maturity or your joy. Always remember that you are not made less by another person’s smallness of mind and spirit unless you choose to make yourself small by responding in kind. 

Don’t bite people. When "nature" attacks, choose to be good, decent, kind and polite, even when others aren’t.