The Hornet's Nest

The humans I live with are a married couple, both have just turned sixty, I am their dog, Sheba. I am 11 years old, a big black dog with blue eyes. I have an amazing appetite and yes you could say with certainty, I am fat. Mom calls me the gentle giant.

Mom and Dad have another dog, also female who is a Husky mix and is one year younger than me, her name is Roxy. Both myself and Roxy came into their lives eleven and ten years ago consecutively.

Roxy is slim and full of energy and can be a bit of a nag to the humans. She always wants a cookie, a walk and attention, but only on her own terms. I on the other hand would be deemed as lay back and content to go along with whatever is happening. Roxy would run away if it were not for the rest of the herd (me especially)

Roxy is my herd, as well as the humans, but mostly Roxy. I liked to know Roxy’s whereabouts at all times, and I become agitated if I do not know where she is. Roxy on the other hand seems quite content with or without me, however, it is safe to say she does return home after an escape from the yard because of me.

Mom is a deep thinker, her thoughts are always going and generating new thoughts that could be positive or negative.

Covid 19 brought many things to light with regards to how people view it and deal with it. It is fair to say that the Covid 19 pandemic re-opened mom's eyes to the diversity of others and their outlooks. It seems when people and animals live in fear, they are more inclined to make errors, and often hurt each other. I say live in your own truth and love and respect others and their truths.

The world is a place of stories, misunderstandings, and theories (before and during Covid 19). We are left plunging through muddy waters and the trappings of the societal structure that we have created. Conflict often ensues, and finding a peaceful, calm way to glide through the maze of information becomes such a challenge. We often loose site of what answers we are looking for as the confusion has led us to forget the questions.

We are all on a journey, and at the same time we must live within the confines of our world. We want to be true to ourselves, but we must conform to the societies we live in so we can have a roof over our head and food on the table.

Mom needed to re evaluate. It is almost as if mom wants to be like me – Sheba - a gentle passive, knowledgeable soul.

She decided to take a solitary journey on her vacation to do a little soul searching and get away from the intrusion of social media and everyone’s thoughts and emotions. She is an empath and very easily affected by the emotional energies that are put out by the universe.

It was the beginning of July 2021, the lockdowns imposed upon us by Covid 19 were slowly being lifted. The likelihood of finding a cottage to rent for the third last week of July was unfathomable. Nevertheless, she started searching for one.

Remarkably the universe provided a beautiful spot available the exact week she had off. It was a miracle!! A cottage called The Night Owls Nest on the Madawaska River about six km from the town of Griffith Ontario.

After securing the cottage, she planned her car trip and prepared to depart on Sunday, and return the following Saturday. She also decided to take me with her for company. Roxy would stay at home with Dad, Roxy hated car rides.

On Sunday morning July 18, around 11:00 am we left for our journey. It was a 3 ½ hour drive.

Mom had a brief panic attack before leaving, she an overall feeling that she would get lost. Mom also had a guilty reaction to taking me away from our home. The lump in the pit of her stomach, or solar plexus stayed with her for at least half of the week.

I felt the anxiety from mom as we travelled to the cottage. Thoughts of what if we have car trouble, get lost, or it gets too dark to find our vacation spot emanated from the driver’s seat.

It is fair to say the trip was an honest but scary effort to ensure mom could care for herself (and me) Also she could discover her spiritual self and find some much needed solace from the Covid 19 pandemic. The social commentary from all sources had become, to her, a loud infantile ferocious cry.

Folks listened to the cry as they were anxious for answers, but the content was useless and spun around in circles. There did not appear to be any solutions. This made sense to me. How could there be immediate solutions to a situation that had not occurred before. Humans had to slow down with their wishful thinking and playing the blame game and start to listen to their hearts. Let the pandemic play out. “The world is evolving as it should”

After 3 ½ hours and one pitstop for a bathroom break, we ended up on an old logging road that would take us to our final destination. From the time we reached the logging road we did not see another human or car. We stopped once for another bathroom break and no one was around.

After 45 minutes on this road alone and dusk moving in, google maps tells us we have reached our destination. The mounting panic mom had been feeling escalated, there was nothing around. I could sense the anxiety coming from mom. What if the whole cottage was a scam put forth by very unkind people to get money for nothing. The phone was almost out of batteries and there did not seem to be any other humans in sight.

I could feel moms heart bounding and the array of nonsensical thoughts one has when they are about to have a panic attack. Then as if by magic two cars pulled up behind us. Mom put on her hazard lights to let them know she required assistance. A white pick up pulled up beside us and through the passenger window we could see a man holding a toddler. He calmly passed the baby to a person in the back seat and stepped out of the truck in response to mom’s honest admittance to being lost and panicked. He looked at the address of the cottage and assured mom we were heading in the right direction. Within ten minutes of following the white pickup truck mom found her turn off and we happily settled at the Night Owls Nest.

There is no explanation of why we got lost and actually ended up arriving at the cottage road from the opposite side we were supposed to. The little town of Griffith was only six km away, and yet we had travelled at least forty-five minutes out of our way on the long slow drive on the logging road.

Having had a beautiful time at the cottage, we arrived home only to find a very large hornets’ nest in the back yard. Initially there was a mild panic that we must get rid of it or someone/pet may get stung. I must say I did get stung when one hornet landed on the deck and I insisted on playing with it. However, if left alone the hornets nest goes about its business, and does not bother anyone or thing. Lawn mowers, barking dogs, frolicking squirrels, chipmunks, birds, barbeque smoke and general movement go unnoticed and without a reaction.

We don’t bother them, and they don’t bother us.

The Hornets Nest was seen as something to fear. However, when left alone to exist, all that could be derived from it's presence was an example of a very healthy and content society