Tuesday, April 5

Moth momma story

This is an old post from myspace...is anyone still on myspace anymore? Anyway, this is a true story.


I believe that it is important to step back on a regular basis to examine oneself; to explore our behavior, our actions and reactions and just to kinda evaluate how we’re doing. I think it is extremely beneficial to take a good look at yourself every so often and adjust accordingly. This can be done in many ways: Journals, meditation, sitting quietly, reading, looking in the mirror and I’m sure people have dozens of ways to add to the list. Tonight I discovered a new way. A slightly disturbing and extremely truthful way of seeing myself. My daughter showed me.

I was getting ready to sit down and read her a story before bed. I went in the kitchen to get her some milk and cookies for her bedtime snack and when I glanced up I saw the mother of all moths. Now, if you don’t already know, I often form personal relationships with the creepy crawlies in my life. They very often are out to get me and I never forget a buggy little face. When I saw this particular behemoth of a moth, my heart stopped and my palms got sweaty. I knew her. She had been in my kitchen window that very morning and my dear husband had sworn that he would escort her outside immediately, if not sooner. Apparently he forgot. Well a few things ran through my head. I could ignore her and try to not think about how she would terrorize me physically and in my dreams all night, or I could put my kung fu skills to use with the broom. I chose the latter.

Meanwhile, daughter sat calmly waiting for me to come read her a story in the other room. I grabbed my broom and took my time to aim...WHACK! And the battle ensued. I missed and this moth monster not only fled from her perch on my wall, but she totally started dive-bombing me! I think I heard engines roaring in my ears! She was pissed! I was ducking and yelling and waving that broom around, hitting every flat surface she grazed. daughter came running in the kitchen, slightly scared from all the commotion and stood there staring. I knew she saw this huge thing attacking her mother and I thought how she must be so scared for me! I urgently told her to run and hide in the closet- you just never know (plus things could get messy)!

The battle between the moth and I continued for another minute or so before I noticed daughter flailing frantically and screeching like a dying bird. I stopped what I was doing and the moth relaxed for a moment far out of my reach. I looked at daughter and she had her little pretend mop and was doing the strangest sort of tribal song and dance around the kitchen. She was squatting and ducking and kicking and waving that mop around like a light saber. She was squawking and screaming and even yodeling here and there. All of a sudden I had my moment of self-reflection. daughter was perfectly imitating me (well I don't think I really yodeled). I looked like a raving maniac and a complete idiot! My daughter had not stood there staring at the hugest moth ever to grace our presence, worried for her and her mother's life, but had stood there staring in disbelief wondering what the heck her mother was doing!

I put the broom away and started laughing and just could not stop. I have not laughed that hard in quite a while. It was so interesting to see how my daughter saw me in that moment. How she interpreted my actions and copied them right away. It really made me think about how our children truly are a reflection of ourselves and what a huge responsibility that is. We made the choice to have children and now they are going to reflect us to the entire world! I have decided that my children are my best source of self reflection and I am so grateful that God gave me that. However, I am going to make a more conscious effort to make sure that I carefully think before I speak or act, because I really don't know how my kids will see and interpret them and then further play the same actions out in their own lives. It goes so much deeper than just watching your language or not yelling in front of them. They are looking to us for cues as to how they should be reacting to trials, adversity, rudeness, unkindness, and how they should share compassion, helpfulness, honesty and so on. Phew...being a mom has turned out to be so much more than making dinner and going to the park! Thank heavens I know I can always look to my own heavenly Father for perfect guidance and direction.
As for momma moth....she’s still up there; perched just out of reach of my broom. Moth man Prophecies got nothing on this beast. I hope she has a comfortable night, because tomorrow I will be making sure Kenny escorts her back outside!


I didn't take a picture of my attacker, so I tried to find a similar pic on the www...this is the closest I came up with.
Let's talk about it for a minute.
This moth is incredibly huge.
Actually it's called a Hercules moth.
My attacker was more like a Hercules moth in puberty. Still had a little growing to do.
Nevertheless, too big.
Now this moth...this is a behemoth. Related to dinosaurs.
What is wrong with this lady?!
I would be pooping my pants. The again, maybe she is. Maybe that explains her expression.

Thanks for lending me your picture, crazy woman.
Good luck with the moth-whisperer thing you got going.


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