A Lesson in Karma

Every night for the last few weeks, my room has been plagued by little black beetle sort of things. I wish I could say definitely what they are, but that's the best I can do. No one seems to know what they're called, even though I see them everywhere. They don't bite, they don't sting, they don't make noise. They're completely harmless, as far as I can tell. But after 7pm, they're EVERYWHERE. On my walls, on my floor, in my bathroom, on my desk, amongst my books, on the little Buddha statue I got in Sri Lanka, on my bed and pillow, on (and in) my guitar. And when I sit totally still to meditate and when I lay down to go to sleep, they're all over me.

I try to refrain from destroying any kind of life as much as possible. But when it's after midnight and I'm exhausted, hot and sweaty, and have been laying in bed awake since 10 and one of these little bugs lands on my face, I just get so... MAD. Every bug that lands on me while I'm trying to sleep gets crushed between my thumb and forefinger and flicked to the floor.

So now my floor is covered with little black chitinous corpses. Not only do I feel guilty for destroying living beings when I see the little beetle charnel ground, but the pile of corpses has now attracted a colony of carnivorous red ants. So now there are tiny little flesh devouring red ants EVERYWHERE in my room. And they see the human form for what it really is-- a big heap of decaying meat.

So now, not only is my room still being invaded by beetles every night, I'm also covered with painful red ant bites; most of which have been delivered in the most inconvenient (and painful!) places imaginable at the most inconvenient times (usually while I'm in the middle of an afternoon nap).

Awesome.