Last spring, I planted a flowering plum tree out in the lawn and it’s been struggling all summer. Wanting to give it a little boost, I asked our neighbor, who has a gigantic pile of horse manure, if I could get some.

“Sure, help yourself,” she said gladly. I intended on spreading the manure around the base of the tree, so the nutrients could seep into the roots.

The manure pile is about a quarter-mile away, over a road and then a trail to the back of the woods.

The weather report was for rain yesterday, so I got my trusty wheelbarrow and shovel and started hoofing it to the pile.

Once I got on the trail to the back of the woods, it became dark because looming rain clouds were forming. Thunder was in the background.

When walking between the trees, I felt myself breaking through spider webs. A spider was hanging from the edge of my straw hat. I wiped the spider away and wiped the webs off my face then decided to move a fallen tree out of the path.

After parking the wheelbarrow, I started breaking branches off the old fallen tree and throwing them out of the path. Then I felt a sting. Then I heard buzzing and felt another sting.

I started running out of the woods and could still hear buzzing. Are the bees following me? No, there was a bee caught in my shirt, near my shoulder.

By now, I was on the road. I threw my hat off. I felt another sting on my shoulder. I striped off my t-shirt.

Not wearing a bra, there I was in the middle of the road, nude from the waist up. Modesty flew out the window due to a little bee. It took another ten seconds for that bee to find its way and fly out of my shirt.

I reluctantly put the shirt back on, not really caring if a vehicle came by. I looked back into the woods and thought, “Forget it. I’ll leave the wheelbarrow in the woods tonight and go home.”

Then I rolled my eyes. I’d been reading a book by Robyn Scott, “Twenty chickens for a saddle,” about life in Africa. There was no whining when it came to snakes, scorpions, and getting bucked off horses. Plus, I remembered an idea from Science and Health about how God created harmless creatures.

I walked back into the woods, pushed the wheelbarrow to the pile, got the manure, pushed it home, shoveled it around the tree and rain came pouring down.