On my morning walk up and down our private road, I observed a colossal struggle taking place on a very minute stage. An ant was carrying a burden. He caught my eye at first because the slight breeze at ground level would lift him and his burden and move both willy-nilly across my path. I thought it was a bit of debris: maybe a dead leaf. But then I looked closer.

It was a piece of dried up leaf; but it was being carried by an ant. The leaf was triangular in shape, and it kept catching any small stir of air. The ant was carrying it at its apex, with the base portion of the triangle waving high above its head. The leaf was acting as a sail; but this sail did not assist the ant in his progress. As it caught the wind, the ant was stopped, he was blown off course, he was flipped over and off his feet, but the ant didn’t let go. He continued forward from wherever the breeze deposited him.

If I were to carry a similar burden, it would be a V-shaped sail with it’s widest point hovering 30-50 feet above my head; it would be like me carrying a billboard along its short side with its length towering into the sky above me. That would be an incredibly ridiculous burden for me. But for the ant? For the ant it was reasonable. What was outstanding about the ant and his burden was that, through all the trouble and circumrotation, as he carried the leaf, he didn’t let it go. He didn’t downgrade to something easier, simpler, less aerodynamic. There is no rebuke for the industrious ant: only admiration and maybe, emulation.

When my burdens seem too much; when I experience the setbacks, the tumbles, the blowbacks…do I keep on? Or do I think of downgrading to a lesser burden?

In difficulty I can query many facets of my situation. I can question both the burden and its attendant frustrations. I can ascertain the need to downgrade my burdens or entertain the possibility to keep on going forward as is. For the ant, his drive to keep on going is built into him. For me, I have a choice. I may temper my stick-at-tive-ness with reason. I can think through the pros and cons of continuing, modifying or dropping the burden altogether. The encouragement of the ant is that maybe, just maybe, even with the burdens that seem all out of proportion to my stamina – those burdens that flip and disorient and set me back – even with those burdens, there is also the possibility of sticking at it. There is no rebuke to the industrious ant.

Go to the ant…consider her ways and be wise.