The top corner of the window by my studio's front door was chosen this past Spring as a home site by a wasp queen.  Just what her qualifications were I'm not exactly sure, but the spot was high up, sheltered and got great indirect light and heat from the parking lot.  All spring and summer I watched her and her first few worker wasps build the cone for the nest. Each morning when I came in I would look up to see how construction was progressing.  The wasps would be hard at work, which from my viewpoint down below seemed arduous and slow. Every night before I left all the wasps would be back on the nest tightly clustered for the night. As the summer heat increased, so did their activity and the number of wasps. Rainy cool days they clustered around the growing number of pupae cases in the hive to keep them warm.  Their lives are brief but full of purpose, for when the first good freeze arrives they will all die off except for the newly mated queens they have raised. Those abandon the nest in search of a spot to hibernate until spring when they will begin a new nest on their own.  Life goes on.

Looking up into their little world I realized it would be easy to feel ours is superior and to pity them for their short lived effort. What happened instead was living side by side we became respectful friends. Arriving after a night of high winds and hard rain I found myself looking to see if they had made it through. I am a bit saddened their time is drawing close. All that hard work fills me with compassion but also brings a gift.

Living in the world whether you are a wasp or a human, is hard work.  Everything is living as hard as it can, including us. Humans aren't hardwired for their life's work the way wasps are, so after we arrive we have the challenge of discovering it and bringing it to light. Often the process is frustrating, confusing, even scary and we can end up feeling stuck and stranded. If you ever find yourself in that tough spot, perhaps you will remember my small swarm of wasps, clinging to their modest nest day in and day out, working along doing for now what they can. Shifting focus onto the richness available from our efforts right now can help us discover more about ourselves. It also honors our struggle, values our efforts and even we we can't see it's impact steadily, inevitably adds to the whole of our life, just the way each slender segment of the wasp nest was built.  There is a place for dreams: the wasps built a nest and launched new queens. Our future will arrive but the bridge to it only exists in this moment.  Give yourself over to it with your whole heart.