LIFE RIGHT NOW â—½ YOU
Ants
by Jennifer Stephens
It started with one. Then another. Tiny black dots frantically scurrying across the kitchen window frame. There’s another one! Nooooooo… Is it? Are they? Please, no. It is. Ugh. ANTS! What is it with these pesky things? Both disgusting and fascinating at the same time. Inside the house? Disgusting (don’t worry, we sealed all entry points and haven’t seen another one since…). But, outside (where they’re SUPPOSED to be)? Fascinating.
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Discovering an anthill can lead to hours (okay, “hours” is a stretch, maybe twenty minutes) watching, observing, and wondering about these miniscule creatures. They’re quite busy. Without speaking a word, each one seems to know exactly what job they’re meant to fulfill. Queens, foragers, nurses, soldiers, builders, cleaners. They use pheromones to signal the needs of their colony and use age and physical traits to determine specific roles. We never see an ant trying to do it all. An ant doesn’t push the other ants out of the way, insisting on fulfilling everyone else’s role. If a rock (or shoe – no, I didn’t almost intentionally stomp on one) gets in their way, they don’t stop – they just find a different path forward. Ants work together to build and maintain their community. Ants are never lazy.
We could learn a lesson from ants. When we recognize our strengths – and the strengths of others – we can each use our individual skills to successfully work together. How often do we try to do it all ourselves or attempt to do something that doesn’t lean into our physical abilities and it leads to feelings of overwhelm and exhaustion? Ants are always in motion. They don’t sit for hours mindlessly scrolling social media (Guilty!). They’re hard workers! They don’t expect beetles or slugs or any other insect to gather food for them – ants work all summer to gather enough food to store for winter. Sometimes we struggle trying to muster up the gumption to finish (or begin) the task at hand. But we need to take initiative. We shouldn’t wait for somebody to prod us along. Ants don’t wait. They go. They keep moving forward. They work as a team. No matter what obstacle stands in their way.
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There are 12,400 species of ants throughout the world. Ants that work together. Ants that stay in motion. Ants that do what needs to be done to maintain their community without being asked or reminded. We could learn a lesson from the ants.
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“Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise!
Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work,
they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter.
But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up?”
Proverbs 6:6-9