1LinerWeds

I do not know how many times I heard this in my life. Accountability for our decisions was key. I heard it from my mother, I heard it from my grandmothers and I heard it from every woman who had a hand in raising me. I am not sure it is good advice in retrospect. I know the echo of those words kept me for asking for help when I needed it the most.

This line popped up in my NaNoWriMo novel last night. It was during an interaction between mother and daughter. My mother’s birthday is coming up so maybe her words were echoed from her to me and onto the page.

I am sure she heard these words throughout her life, too. Funny thing, though. Most of the time when we give advice like that, we don’t mean it. We may not agree with the decisions our children make, but we generally show up for them when needed.

This reminds me of more sage advice I received throughout my life:

Be careful what you ask for; You just might get it.

We ought to offer better advice for future generations, don’t you think?

What advice do you think will echo in the ears of your children or grandchildren?

Definite food for thought.

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Day 283

This morning I was making my coffee while hubby went outside to put the bird feeders out and water the plants. I was pouring the cream in when I heard a knock on the back window. Hubby held up two fingers and then formed his hands as if he was praying. I walked closer and heard him say praying mantis.

Living where we live, interesting bugs and creatures are a daily occurrence and normally I leave them alone. But this was in close proximity to the hummingbird feeder. I had recently read an article about praying mantis preying on and eating hummingbirds. Not on my watch!

So, I slipped my shoes on, grabbed my phone (gotta have blog photos), and headed outside. I looked down and did not see any praying mantis.

“Those aren’t praying mantis, those are walking sticks.”

I was prepared to relocate the creatures, but since they were not what I expected them to be, I just snapped photos and let them be.

Walking sticks (phasmatodeans) are an interesting little creature. Easy to miss. From some brief reading, they are said to cause deforestation and yet other articles pose the idea they are beneficial because they eat decaying leaves encouraging regrowth. They are herbivores and have a number of their own predators, though.

Funny how we like some creatures more than others. I was more than willing to relocate the praying mantis to protect the hummingbirds but left the walking sticks to fend for themselves so close to the bird feeder where they could be subjected to predators.

My mind keeps throwing this phrase around:

Two sticks walked into a bar…

I must have had Dan’s SoCS posts in mind…

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