Ants are busy little creatures! I never understood the attraction of ant farms, but now I get it. I was having one of those days where you can’t win for losing, the culmination of which was locking my keys in my car at the end of a very long day. As I approached my car, all I could think about was the steaming hot cup of chai tea I would be sipping in a nice, short twenty minutes. As I place my bag on the passenger side seat and closed the door, I knew my keys were in the bag. But they operate on a sensor which is not supposed to let them get locked in the car. They never had before; there was no reason to think the doors would lock then. But they did. Despite my efforts to will the key fob to recognize that I was trying to open the door, the doors remained locked and I was stuck, staring into a locked car, my keys poking out of my bag mocking my haste. Now, not only did I have to wait for someone from home to battle the rush hour traffic to bring me the extra set of keys from home, I also had to wait for someone to first get home. Oh, and I also had to find a phone because my cell phone was, OF COURSE, in my bag! (And really, that’s not even half of it because I don’t even know my husband’s work number or my son’s cell number - note to self: learn these - so I had to go inside the building and find a phone book - Ha! - then call for a ride.
Thirty minutes later, I had managed to reach my husband, who promised to get in touch with our son, who would hopefully be able to stop whatever he was doing to go home, retrieve the keys and drive them to me. I did have a flash of brilliance right before I hung up the land line inside the office that was patiently waiting for me to finish: “Have him pick me up at Whole Foods. I’m starving and it will be a while, so I’ll walk there and wait for him outside. Thank!” Brilliant! Until I left the building and began walking toward Whole Foods, only to realize that my wallet was locked in my car with the rest of my freedom! Well, I could catch up on grading... Oh wait, the essays are locked in the car as well.
I was faced with a choice. I could cave into the helplessness that was obviously going to dominate the next several hours of my life and be miserable, or I could figure out a way to make the best of it. To make matters a bit more challenging, I thought I had taken this road less traveled already in having my son meet me at Whole Foods, but because I didn’t have my wallet my propensity for the Bright Side was going to be truly put to the test.
I headed over to Whole Foods to wait for my ride and selected a place to sit and wait. The great thing about Whole Foods is that the atmosphere can be very Zen, aside from the unavoidable reality that it is in a parking lot. I parked myself next to a water a fountain among the fresh herbs to maximize my waiting experience. With no cell phone or essays to distract me, I could do little more than gaze into the brick wall, breath and think good thoughts. That’s when I noticed the ants. Dozens of them. So busy. So oblivious to my world, just going about what looked like the very important work of their world. I began to feel weirdly grounded. Observing their little universe in the context of my own somehow made my problems of the moment seem less urgent. They were so organized. Each ant following in step. Sharing the burden of carrying a heavy load. And where were they going? What was behind that crack in the cement? Was there a home? What did it look like? Were they happy in their work or were they just grunting along until they could get home and relax? Watching these ants made the next ninety minutes fly by and reaffirmed my belief that when we stop to take a break a huge space opens up inside of us for reflection, appreciation, and gratitude. It’s too bad that sometimes it take being forced to do so to make it happen. I hope the lesson I can take away from this experience is that in each moment I have a choice. A choice to rush and live somewhat unconsciously, or to be awake in each moment and experience it for what it is.
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