The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands
Sun Tzu
Yesterday, (April 20) was truly a beautiful spring day befitting of Resurrection Day. The perfect amount of sunlight shined through the front windows lighting up the studio with a comforting golden light. The weather was ideal to keep the front door open. I invited the gentle breeze in to sweep through the studio, removing the stale winter air.
After class, I got to repotting some plants. I heard a little ruckus at the front of the studio, like a fly buzzing around. Since flies are not welcome here, I walked over to chase it out.
However, when I got there I was surprised to see that it was not a fly. Rather, it was a huge, fuzzy bumble bee with striking yellow and black bands trying to find its way outside. The poor thing was in a chaos. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t just fly out the window. I mean, she saw the parking lot and the trees so why couldn’t she just fly into what she was seeing?
Fight or Flight
The door through which she originally entered was still wide open and it was only 3 or 4 feet away. Yet she kept flitting around, attempting to fly through the window pane. She tried everything she could think of. She’d go up a little higher, then fly to her left, to the right and back down again but she found no opening. At first, I observed her for a few moments but then I tried to guide her, gesturing with my hands. I cheered her on, fully expecting that she’d find her way out. “That’s it, keep going! your almost there! No, not that way.” As soon as she started to make progress she’d give up and go back to square one. She thought she was trying to solve the problem from new perspectives but in reality she was repeating the same pattern over and over again.
After a couple of minutes, I realized that this bumble bee was not going to figure out how to get out on her own. She was too frantic. Her instincts were disabled due to her state of pandemonium. I knew I had to help her. I figured I could trap her in a paper cup and then free her outside. I’ve done this successfully many times with various different insects.
She was NOT having it!
She fought me the whole way. A couple of times I thought I had her, but somehow she evaded capture. A true escape artist! I did not want to hurt her so I did my best to be gentle. I talked softly to her, told her that I could help her if she would just allow it. She did not want my help though. She was one stubborn bumble bee who just wanted to do it on her own. Or maybe she believed that my intentions were to harm her. Either way, she became even more erratic, which reinforced the walls of her self imposed prison.
I backed off for a couple of minutes, took a deep breath and asked the Holy Spirit what I should do next. As I pondered, she continued to buzz around like a maniac from one corner of the window to another, trying to fly through the glass. The insight came to me to just shoo her out toward the open door. Although I already tried that, this time I approached with authority and equipped myself with a old pamphlet. Of course, she resisted and tried to fly deeper inside. I managed to block her from doing that and forced her toward the door little by little. Encouraging her, coaxing her, cheering her on until she finally reached her goal.
Victory!!!
Finally at the open door, she hovered up and down for a few seconds. I urged her on… “you did it, go!” She then realized that there was no barrier and flew out to her freedom! I was so happy for her. I could almost feel the relief she must have been feeling. If only she let me help her from the beginning, it would have saved her a lot of stress.
Giving her space to figure it out and talking to her calmly did not help because she was already in full fight-or-flight mode by the time I reached her. It’s very, very difficult to find the answer you need from fight-or-flight mode because you see everything as a threat. Even those who are trying to help you. Your intuition AND logic get shut down, making it impossible to see the solution which is often so simple and obvious. When the panic set in, the bumble bee became her own worst enemy.
We humans are not so different in this way.
Nothing in the world is difficult, it is only our own thoughts that make things seem so.
Wu Cheng’en