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Today’s podcast tells the real life story about two brave little boys and a mom who got… stung in the butt. Yep. You can’t make this stuff up!! Don’t worry. There were some life lessons amidst the chaos that ensued on that memorable day.
We laugh about it now.
But the day it happened… it was anything but funny!
There we were, a bunch of my family members fishing on a tranquil lake near a private lake house. The fish were biting and my kids, especially my two boys who LOVE to fish, were enjoying every moment of it.
We were all having a great time until…. We weren’t.
One of my nephews toddled up the path from the lake to the house and began screaming uncontrollably.
Naturally, everyone who was fishing down at the lake came running up the same path to see what the commotion was all about. That was a mistake.
Within minutes, mass chaos ensued.
Kids, parents and grandparents were all screaming. My nephew had been stung by a wasp, and when the rest of the family came running up the same path my nephew had taken, we had officially stirred up (and ticked off) an entire nest of ground hornets.
Many of us were getting stung multiple times and we were all confused about what was happening, because it was happening so fast. It was like a scene from a scary movie, it sort of felt surreal. My whole family was jumping and screaming, while the wasps attacked from every angle.
The top of my foot lit up with pain and then the unimaginable happened…
A wasp flew up my shorts and I got stung. In. The. Butt.
Instinct kicked in and we started scooping up kids and rushing everyone into the lake house.
Tears, ice packs, ibuprofen and Benadryl followed.
(As for the wasp nest, a brave grandpa and a can of Raid took it out.)
When the dust settled, we weren’t sure whether to cry or laugh.
We had never been through anything quite like that before!
I didn’t feel too certain about much at that moment, but one thing I was sure of…. I just knew my kids would be terrified from that experience and that they would never set foot down the path to the lake again, no matter how much they loved fishing.
And I was right….
For about 10 minutes.
After that, my two boys decided that whatever obstacle or fear life threw at them… they weren’t going to let it cover their passion.
I glanced out the lake house window to see them blazing a new trail down to the lake.
They were still going to chase their passion, undeterred. They simply created an alternative route to get there.
My boys fished for the next 4.5 hours. They caught a whole stringer of keepers.
It makes me ask the question… What’s the current stinger preventing you from achieving what you want? How can you create an alternative path to get there?
I’ll never forget the way my boys made a new path, refusing to let fear stop them from chasing their passion. They reminded me that everything is “figureoutable.” Sometimes you just need to create an alternative way to get there.
Those two little guys opened my eyes to something awesome that day. It was worth getting stung in the butt for! (Honest!) My boys reminded me that day, that when life throws you a stinger, you should ice that sucker, then figure out a way to get back to fishing. And I would have to agree that they’ve got it right.
