There’s nothing like a little spring air, and I mean little, to make you realize there is a whole world of possibilities out there.
The sun has shone just enough, not to mention the rain and wind and at least above freezing temperatures, to give us a glimpse of what lies ahead.
The promise of the golf courses opening and the sand one day being cleaned from the roadway is balanced out somewhat by the appearance of dead grass and fallen branches and all that spring yardwork that lay underneath all that snow for so long.
But even the idea of getting out there and breaking a sweat on the lawn is appealing after the winter of 16-17….
……I was sharing a story about nature the other day with a staff member that hit home, at least for me.
It all started with missing a transit bus on Scott Road in Delta some 20 years ago, actually more like 30 or even 40 but I’m getting off point. Heavy sigh.
The next bus wasn’t for an hour and I was peeved, to say the least.
Go back to where I was staying, at least a 15-minute walk, or stay put on the bench and stare at the ground for 55 minutes?
Being young and lazy, I chose the latter.
That’s when I had an interesting, at least I think it was, brush with nature next to a four-lane speedway in metropolitan Vancouver.
Once the steam stopped pouring out of my ears in frustration at missing the bus, I noticed a small colony of ants busy eking out their lives beneath my feet.
They were going about their business just like all the humans in their cars whizzing by on their way to some important, or not, destination.
And then I started noticing the connection between the two.
Especially for one poor ant who was having a heck of a time with a load on his back.
And what a load it was. Almost as big as him (or her, I realize, but it looked like a guy, ha).
He would carry it for a few inches, which is likely the equivalent of miles for us humans, and just like the load on his back is probably the equivalent of a bin of apples for us bipeds.
Nevertheless he was making good time with his load, of food I assume and for his colony down the sidewalk a bit I also assumed, until a car in the inside lane would go motoring by and the load would be blown off his back and he would scurry around, twice as fast as before, looking for his lost treasure.
I could see it was about six inches or a foot away from his reach, and I suppose I could’ve intervened either to help him or frustrate him, but I was way more focused on his plight and impressed by how determined he was to get that piece of whatever back on his back and on his way to his destination once again.
That’s because it kept happening again and again and each time he kept succeeding in finding the lost needle in the haystack through a determined effort and maybe a little bit of luck.
Eventually my bus came and we parted ways so I can’t be sure whether he made it to his destination, sans food or not, but he kept trying and that was the lesson of the day for this human on that day.
Unknown forces may keep throwing us off course, or scatter our stuff, but instead of proclaming ‘Why me?’ and giving up, keep on keeping on and you may get your just rewards. Or at least enjoy the journey a whole lot more.
Plus it turned out to be a decent, and even entertaining, way to kill 55 minutes.