There are certain lessons we learn in life. Some we learn as young children- don't touch the stove. Don't pull the dog's tail. Don't talk back to your mom when she's moaning at you because you broke something! Some of these I learned pretty quickly, and some I learned the hard way, but learn them I did!
As adults though, I find that we aren't always as open to changing our ways, or learning new things. But nature teaches us a few lessons too, and if we pay attention, we can pick up a lot of pointers.
One of the coolest little guys in the wild is the old dung beetle. He works tirelessly, and it's not easy work either let me tell you! In order to attract a mate, he needs to show that he can provide a suitable place for her to lay her eggs, so he will spend hours digging through animal dung, gathering all the right material to roll together and create a dung ball. If she likes it, she will climb aboard and hang onto that dung ball as he pushes it around to a suitable spot, where she will lay an egg on it, and they will then bury it, leaving the egg to hatch, and a new dung beetle to emerge after eating the poopy breakfast it woke up to.
But it's not always that easy... pushing a ball of damp poo is hard work when a simple twig could be a major stumbling block for you. Especially when that ball of poo could weigh as much as 850 times your own weight! Up hills, hanging on as your poopy-prize rolls down hills, over stones and through grass, dodging birds who would love to eat you, and then, you have to fight off other males who would want nothing more than to steal your ball of dung- lady included- and claim the prize as their own!
But they persist, against all odds, and they win. They make it, they find a good spot, they lay and fertilise the egg and bury it, and then they do it all again.
Life is tough for a beetle. It's tough for a person too, but with persistence and a lot of effort the rewards will come.
