a new friend

Today I met an inspirational ant.

With prospect of midterms next week everyone is in study mode, so I followed suit and got down to some reading. I was lying on the floor in the hopes of escaping some of the heat when I saw a little ant come crawling towards me. I prepared my aim, ready to squash it when I realised that it was in distress. Ants (don't quote me on this, I'm not sure if my memory serves correctly in this area) are really bad at directions. They plan out a path, and follow that path repeatedly going back and forth along the exact same line collecting supplies. If something breaks the line of the path, they freak out, scuttling all over the place with a desperate lack of direction. My ant, apparently had been interrupted by me. I watched it as it walked a perfect circle, about the size of a 2pence piece, over, and over, and over, apparently oblivious to the repetition. I felt so sorry for the wee fellow. (I still squished it, we can't have ants.) But it made me wonder. How often do I do that? Something will get in my way, and instead of stopping to take bearings, or asking for directions, I'll just rush round in circles like a mad person, rehashing old paths (that didn't work the first time round, so doubtless won't this time.) Thankfully, I'm not an ant, so nobody is going to squish me before I realise I'm a plonker.

But at the same time, I was reading over some old thoughts, and realised that sometimes you do have to reflect a little before you can move forward. (Oh what a confusion, but you gotta live the great big oxymoron that is life.)

So this evening, while under the influence of a rouge piece of crazed motivation, I popped outside to run (well... maybe walk/jog with determination) round in circles taking time to stop and reflect before deciding which direction to go in. I made two discoveries: one – humidity plus exercise equals undefinable levels of face redness that I had not known to be possible, and two it's so much easier to think productively after a little preparation.