Jun 29 2012
Ants
Dominoes is a game. An actual game with real rules. But most people first learn to use dominoes by standing them vertically very close to each other and then pushing the first domino over and watching them all fall over one at a time.
Life seems like that. Stable, orderly, almost beautiful one minute. And then pieces all over the place the next.
Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!
_Proverbs 6:6
One thing we learn from an ant, is they don’t stand still. Watch one and see how often it stops just to hang out. Not long. They’re always moving.
I watched a tiny ant tonight. He picked up something huge and started walking with it. It looked like the equivalent of a 6-foot human carrying a king-sized bed by themselves. Then I saw a huge ant that looked like it was from a different ant species – about 10 times the size of the tiny ant. The tiny ant had carried this “king-sized mattress” about 10 feet (probably 2 miles in ant distance) when this big ant tackled the small ant and took the cargo. “Ain’t that some crap!” I said out loud to myself. I looked back at the tiny ant. He was motoring along like nothing happened. The ant is programmed to work.
If you’re in a season of life that’s still and you’ve been stuck for a while, go watch an ant. Consider its ways and be wise! Start moving. For those of you with depression or anxiety, this isn’t simple. But know this. Human beings ARE programmed to work. Not 80 hours a week, but something. Has someone cheated you? Stolen from you? Does life seem like a pile of dominoes? That tiny ant went and got another “mattress.” Pick up your pieces and do your work one-by-one. One-by-one. One-by-one.
I’m going to keep commenting, because you keep throwing out good stuff. I never thought I would learn something from an ant, but this is a good word dude. You’re right – I have never seen an ant sit and hang out. But imagine for a second an ant going to the beach with a chair and an umbrella.
Haha. This is what makes us distinctively human, bro! Now think about this. There are ants that work on the beach and now with laptops and iPhones, so do humans.
There is a line floating around as of the last few years “Do the Work”. I know Steven Pressfield wrote this pretty awesome book called “The War of Art” based on that same theme.