Do Like the “Hermies” Do....
Do Like the “Hermies” Do....
We have exchanged some of our hermit crabs for new ones. After a few brief weeks in our wire castle, we felt it was time to send them back to their friends and family near the ocean. I'm sure their experience with us offers them many things to share with loved ones back in the sand and rocks along the shore. Hopefully the new, commercialized hermit food, fresh sand, coral, and water made them feel as much at home as possible during their stay. Still, there were things they had to adapt to. They had several friends with them in their smaller, enclosed surroundings, and yet they were new hermie friends, and so they had to get used to each other now in such a confined space. Perhaps they had to overcome the challenges of a new, smaller environment: gossip, more of their lives being an “open book” to each other, fewer options to get out and meet other hermit crabs, etc. [”Did you see what that hermit crab tried on for a new shell yesterday? Who does she think she is?”] What they had for a few weeks in their cage was what they had to make do with: sink or swim, bury themselves in the sand or learn to like each other a little, develop a critical spirit or learn how to offer more grace toward others. Maybe they ran into a new hermie that had a personality that reminded them of someone that used to “bug them” or whom they couldn't relate to “back home,” but now they couldn't scuttle so easily away to escape them or be anonymous, for even a second? They could sulk, or embrace what life offered them in their new surroundings: the chance to climb around and around in their cage and try not to “knock down” another hermie hanging there. :) Instead of freely milling about as they were accustomed, they had to make do with the few things offered them in a wire cage on a patio for awhile. They had new food, and so I'm sure that took some time for their palates to consider appealing. The few “hermit-crab-friendly” items we ordered online for them came, and it hopefully made them feel a bit more like home for a while...like a favorite blanket (in this case, some new shells to move into).
Not knowing we would eventually set them back to the life they were missing, perhaps they started dreaming of the way things used to be, or perhaps where they would go if they again had the freedom to get back to the familiar. What they would eat. Who they would spend more time with. How they would spend their time. I wonder what they are saying even right now about their stay with us. What did they learn to make them better after their return? How did their friends and family see positive change in them, growth in character, more patience? And how was adjusting back? If they had the chance to freely return to us, would they? While in captivity here, several “free” hermit crabs came to visit them every night on our back patio, usually after dark. Did our captives look down in envy, or just share stories of a new life, a big change, the struggles and the victories?
And so it is that we feel much the same way here at Kwajalein. This big-city girl can easily get swallowed up by the very tiny space and the small-town ways that folks here have adapted to. It's not a bad thing....just VERY VERY different. It is made all the more intense by our remote location. This is NOT my comfort zone. It is far too easy to be “anonymous” in Boston when you want to. Not here. Not ever. Will I be the hermit crab who gives up and buries myself deep into the sand, or will I be the hermit crab (as most of them were) who learns to be happy with new experiences: the cage opening for new food to try, a new member being added to the cage to get to know, the chance to walk around the wires of the cage and see life from a different perspective. My kids seem to be the second hermit crab so far, even though some days we all want to give up and go home to dear ones. Mark seems to also be the second hermit crab, although his upbringing makes him a little more familiar with “small-town ways.” He is trying scuba diving, etc. By choice, I took my turn as “last” in adapting here, after making sure everyone else in our family settled in, and so now it is my time for self-reflection. No matter where you are, you can never run from yourself, but in a smaller place, there are more reflections of yourself all about. Experiences like these make you take a good look and see what kind of person you are or at least are trying to be. I am hopeful that the outcome will be favorable for me, but I am humbly looking to my small crab friends for daily inspiration. I have much to learn from them, and I look forward to observing and getting to know the new ones currently trying their hand at a confined, but temporary life on our back patio.
Stay tuned.
[Not every blog will dwell on the hermit crabs, but they have indeed presented endless learning opportunities for our family. They are a microcosm of our life here, and for that reason, they take on a special meaning. Ask Mark sometime how obsessed I am going out to talk to them at night. Actually, ask our neighbors. Wink.]
Friday, October 19, 2007