Sunday 22 May 2016

52x52: Save the Person, Save the Bug

52 random acts of kindness that each take under 52 seconds. One action each week, over a year takes less than an hour of your life.

This week, when planning on going camping with our Duke of Edinburgh Award group I was reminded of the previous time when I had to 'rescue' some of the girls from the earwigs in their tent. The screams would have been more appropriate if a stampede of cows had been heading towards their tent but nonetheless I got in there and removed the bugs from the tent, to the relief of the girls and the bugs. Ok the earwigs may not have known enough to be relieved but if they had stayed much longer in the tent, they would not have been long for this world.

I'm not saying to take on Buddhist-like practices, of saving every single creature as I have killed mosquitoes (when it's me or them, I claim self-defense). But when it comes to harmless creatures like earwigs or spiders or flies I like to either use the trap in a glass, sliding a piece of paper over it routine or at night they will follow a light or during the day if there is one of those big blue-bottle flies that's got in the half open window most of the time they just want to get out so I just pull back the curtain open the window wider and shoo them a little and they soon get the message and fly out.

I remember saving my mum from moths. She hated them. I have learned now instead of swatting them, to just turn off the light of the room it is in and turn on the light outside and it will just fly towards the light. 

So next time someone is frightened by a bug, you know what to do, and it will be an act of kindness for the person and the bug. Save the person - save the bug.

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