Honor All Beings
With a downloadable illustrated PDF on Catch-and-Release Fly Hunting instead of using deadly force.
Many years ago, a dear friend gave me a bumper sticker that I immediately put on my aging 122S Volvo, where none had been before. It was pink, my least favorite color, but the words, surrounded by endearing animals, ingrained into my thinking: Honor All Beings.
To honor means to regard and treat with great respect. To do so for all beings is not a general way for humans to think.
The bumper sticker finally faded, curled up, and fell off.
Instead of a non-pink bumper sticker (maybe later,) I have a free PDF [below] of my “Technique for Catching and Releasing Flies.” It also works well for centipedes, moths, spiders, and insects and can work down into your soul when you aren’t looking.
I created this illustrated tutorial originally as part of a handmade book on Peace, and almost everyone I’ve ever taught it to still uses it. Sometimes, but only as a last resort, I will declare war if an entire city of ants or flies invades the house. But clearing a room full of flies in about 20 minutes is possible if you work fast. I met a woman who waved her hand gently to point the way, asking about twenty flies to go outside, and they did. Ants also respond to this. I’m still not that advanced, but ever hopeful.
My formal introduction to the idea that flies, all beings, are creative, endearing, and have a sense of humor was in the book "Kinship With All Life" by J. Allen Boone. He tells how house flies enjoy annoying people who swat at them and then how to ask them to please sit elsewhere. The title says it perfectly. Another book by the same author you might enjoy is “Letters to Strongheart,” a collection of letters he sent to his pal, a handsome film star German Shepherd, after the dog passed on to the great out-yonder. You might say, oh no, there are tons of horrible humans and other living creatures that could never be interacted with. But that’s not true. There are stories of people who maintain this way of being in the worst conditions and prevail. For more light reading, try “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankle.
You can download The Fly Catching PDF here:
If you ask your printer to print on 2 sides, you will have it on a nice single sheet of paper. You could put it in a protective sheet cover, place it on the side of your icebox/refrigerator, glue it into your journal sketchbook, or place it in your House Rules binder. Go now, and catch some flies! ❤️
All is Well.