Few days ago, a smell of a decomposing body started to stink all over the basement of our house. Members of the household helped searched the whole basement for the source of the foul smell. We thought the search would just take us a few minutes to do, but to our disappointment, we didn't found it the first day no matter how hard we tried. We were able to locate the origin of the foul smell only the next day after we ended up doing a very time-consuming and exhausting general cleaning of the basement, turning the whole area "upside down" removing out and disposing away unnecessary discardable things already piling up and deteriorating and forgotten for many years.We were almost done with the general cleaning but still we did not found what we were looking for. Tired and exhausted, a sense of disappointing failure mingled in the air with the irritating worsening stinking smell of the decomposing rodent dead for days already. Wrongly assuming, we retired and concluded that maybe the foul smell came from some source outside of the house and just got carried by the wind passing through the screened windows of the basement.
Perhaps it's no big deal to exhaustively search our entire house (if needed) just to find and remove a tiny dead mouse -- because it's necessary, lest the household will be endangered of getting sick. But what was striking to me (which led me into some contemplation) was that we were able to locate the dead tiny rodent not while we were doing the general cleaning but rather only after we have finished. As we were about to close the basement door, all the while, the dead mouse was just right between the door and the wall but no one was able to see it because the door was opened (the whole time we were doing the cleaning) fully swinged to the wall sandwiching the dead little mouse in between.
Contemplating about the whole thing, some thoughts came to my mind. Things maybe very small and unimportant but yet they can matter greatly in some way -- even their insignificant and unnoticed death. If it were not of the dead little mouse, those unnecessary discardable things piling up at our basement would probably be still there left unattended and undisposed for many more years.
What was also curious to me about the whole thing was that the rodent's dead body lay near a lost coin. And also, instead of maggots as the usual decomposing agents, common black house ants were present instead.
Rodent symbolizes corruption, wastefulness, greed, opportunism.
A dead thing symbolizes an end of something.
Ants are signs of diligence, industry, productiveness and prosperity.
Coin is a symbol of wealth, treasure, or things of value.
Finding of a lost coin is a sign of restoration and prosperity.
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To those who can see, look ahead; for there shall come restoration of things as well as end of other things.
