Amazed by Ants

I have been in awe of the work ethic of ants ever since I was camped out near an oil field with my oldest child with nothing to entertain us except whatever show Mother Nature was featuring at the time. 

It was the early 1980's, the decade when the Walkman was the newest of the new portable entertainment devices and we didn't have the privilege of such a luxury. It was me, my small child, a tent and whatever snacks I had brought along.

We came upon one of the most industrious insects I have ever known - the common ant. We watched these hard working little bugs for an untold amount of time. The show these little bugs put on for us had me spellbound.

Work, work, work. The amount they could carry astounded me. The teamwork. The organization. Every ant had a role to play. It was a system that worked.

Ever since that time, any time I spot an ant toting some humongous object, I stop and marvel all over again. 

The only exception to this fascination with ants is when they moved into our home and decided to stay. Ants inside a residence are a whole different breed of obsession.

Despite the invasion of ants inside our home, I still feel a sense of childlike wonder when I watch the Herculean feats of these ambitions little insects. 

As I raced out the door, already running behind schedule I noticed something moving on the driveway and stopped to record this little ant carrying a beetle:

The human race has only to look towards nature to find a "better way". What would happen if we followed the lead of the lessons nature has to share? Perhaps it is not all good - some animals are known to eat their young. As humankind continues to spiral in a fashion where innocent people are in danger for no other reason than being at the wrong place at the wrong time, I believe a little time soaking up the miracle of existence on this planet we call earth certainly can't hurt. Can it?

 “If an ant carries an object a hundred times its weight, you can carry burdens many times your size.”

~ Matshona Dhliwayo

Down an (almost) Literal Rabbit Hole

My morning walk is not dictated by a set route. I simply follow where the road takes me. Come along with me this morning ...

I decided to "turn right" and walk down the cat walk beside our home. 

This is who I found at the end of the alley. It reminded me of the rabbits who led the way after Mom died (I wrote about it here: https://colleen-lifeasiknowit.blogspot.com/2017/09/dear-mom.html), when I wasn't ready to leave her home. I embraced the memory and followed where this rabbit led:

I guess we are turning left:

Brief pit stop while checking traffic conditions before crossing a busy street:

One quick crossing before the big one:

I tailed along assuming that was the last I saw of the rabbit, but I was wrong:

Here we go on a "rabbit chase", as I walked along as slowly and quietly as I could so I wouldn't spook my new long eared friend:

Look who they met. If you look verrrrry closely in the grass beside the post on the right, with an orange tip you will note a small blur of "rabbit":

Yes, my new rabbit friend found their friend. Notice how they are pointed in different directions so when they sense peril, they can each head off in a separate direction to keep one out of danger:

Sure enough, one darted in the yard it was facing and the other headed straight down the alley:

And ... there appeared (what I can only assume may be a third rabbit because it seemed to come from a different direction than rabbit headed when it hid out of sight):

This pair lost me soon after they found each other. I guess they had had enough of the game of keeping half a block ahead of a human. So I carried on, thinking I may have hit the end of my rabbit adventures.

As I started heading back toward the direction I came from, I saw a very small moving animal off in the distance. Sure enough, even when I came closer it was still a very small animal. I am pretty sure this little one was a baby - quite small and not a hint of lightness in its brand new coat of fur, with no remnants from a shedded white winter coat:

This little one appeared to be on its own and it was very cagey with me. It darted into a back yard and was heading toward the front yard when I last saw it:

I walked to the end of the street then back in front, hoping I may see it again. No luck. So I walked around the block, came up the same back alley (anyone watching me this morning may assume I was staking out the neighborhood for some unlawful reason). I felt badly that I got the dogs in their backyards all riled up (again) but walked quickly, deciding this would end my walk for the day when ...

... look who appeared at almost exactly the same spot as before. I am guessing it was the same baby rabbit I spotted earlier. This time it turned left instead of right, never to be seen again:

I wistfully hoped to discover a rabbit in my own back yard when I arrived home but no such luck. My morning was lost down an above-ground "rabbit hole". This sure beats losing myself down a "rabbit hole" when one internet search leads to the next, next, another and yet another one.

Let yourself find your own adventure as you wander down the road of life. You never know where it may take you.

Ahhh-some Moments

Reigniting the habit of writing has changed me. I'm seeing the world again. I live the day like I'm going to write a blog post about it. I'm spinning the tales I tell myself within my thoughts and it has changed my perspective in a positive way.

Living intentionally. Propelling myself into my days with a lightly formed agenda of that-which-I-want-to-do has put a new spin on an old life.

My days aren't long enough. Especially since I gave up mindless eating. The eating I did while staring at the TV, computer screen, my phone and most especially the eating I did simply to stay awake.

Mornings are precious to me so what I lose at night, I gain in the morning. Getting out of bed is so much easier than it had been. "How much can I squeeze into my pre-work hours?" has become my daily challenge.

When I work, I work better. More focus. More push. More drive. Then again, that could be because June brings a new set of deadlines to beat and I'm pretty good with deadlines.

The "woe is me" attitude is waning. It is becoming more of a "wow is me" mindset. Wow! I feel better when I do some morning stretches. Wow! It feels good to get out and walk. Wow! I have written a daily blog post ten days in a row. Wow! I am enjoying food so much more when I eat without distractions. Wow! Eating food without distractions is time consuming.

In the depth of winter and the despair I felt waking up to life as I know it, I woke up wishing the day away. I made my bed, longing for the moment I got to collapse back into it after a long, hard day. Work was hard. House and yard work were hard. Cooking was hard. Answering the phone was hard. Going through the paces of living my life felt so hard. My reprieve from the hard life was my escape to my little oasis on the prairie on weekends where life felt so much easier.

What I have discovered in my two week venture into leading an intentional life, is that I really don't have time to work. I'm ready for retirement now that I know how to spend my days intentionally.

Two weeks does not a habit make. But I have a very good feeling about this shift in perspective. It has added a sense of awe into the mundaneness of my Monday to Friday life. The "ahhhh" I write at the top of so many of my morning pages in my little oasis on the prairie is being supplemented by a little awe during the week. 

What are your "ahhh" moments? The moments when you sit still and simply feel awesome in the moment you are in? Revel in the "ahhh". Breathe it in. Hold it gently. See what you can do to add just a few more of those ahhh-some moments into your world. Small steps. Be quiet in those moments. Be still. Let your answers find you.

Oprah set the phrase "ah-ha moments" into action. I'm a little bit lazier than Oprah. I'll settle for the "ahhh-some moments". One moment at a time.

A few of my ahhh-some moments from my walk:

Foiled Again

This is my goal:

And this? Is Jet messing with me. Again.

 

Wordless Wednesday

I have been living life "intentionally" for just over a week now and I am exhausted.

In an effort to keep to my commitment of blogging daily, I thought posting a picture that brings me joy would suffice. 

This picture is my definition of bliss. Sitting at the table in my little oasis away from home, a cup of coffee, pen and paper and a picture perfect view. I look at this and I feel the weight of the world lifted off my shoulders. The word that most often falls off the tip of my pen when I sit down to write at this little piece of serenity is "ahhhh".

This picture was taken October 24th. Seven months ago. I am not saying that is the last time I felt a blissful moment such as this. I feel it each and every time I sit in this spot as I write my morning pages and greet the day. But it made me realize I should stop and take a picture when I'm in a moment when I'm fully present and breathing in the day more often. 

Maybe that can be an easy way of reinforcing this "intentional life" - to not only stop and smell the roses, but to snap a picture to mark the moment so when I wake up to a wordless kind of day, I can sift through my pictures and find one that says it all.

Not such a wordless Wednesday, after all.

If I Could Save Time in a Bottle ...

If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing that I'd want to do ... would be to buy a bigger bottle.

In my one week journey to live a more intentional life and try to fit in all I should do, along with all I want to do I have discovered my uncanny knack to use up whatever time I have at hand.

A weekend of not having to work in my day job(s) was bliss. Oh, sweet glorious time! But (surprise, surprise!), I filled up my time effortlessly. 

Between yard work, house work, meal planning and company (yes!!! I have actual face-to-face people contact and company on weekends!!), I barely had time to catch up on the backlog of puzzles I hadn't had time to do over the course of last week. 

This is actually a pleasant surprise. I accomplished small things every day. I cooked and ate well. I wasn't consumed by TV, Internet and my phone. I ended each day with a small list of things I wish I would have had time for. 

Time. Are we all masters of using up whatever time we are given? In an effort to simply add a few basics into my regular ordinary life, I am scrambling to find a new equilibrium. 

I tried adding 15 minutes of some extra-curricular stretching, yoga or some form of exercise to help strengthen, tone and make my body just a little more limber. Too much, too soon? 

Time is such a fleeting thing. If you could save time in a bottle how would you choose to fill it?

Planned Power Outage Alert

I was informed of a planned power outage between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. at precisely 7:37 a.m. By approximately 8:38, I had made Impossible Bacon Pie, fried onions (so they would be ready if I decided to barbeque hot dogs for lunch), pealed potatoes for supper and sliced up the remaining onion and celery for tuna sandwiches.

One hour. Meal and lunch prep complete. Dishes washed. House smelling yummy from all the prepared foods.

One hour the day prior consisted of an hour frittered away on the computer, accomplishing little to nothing with my time.

Give me a deadline and I will meet or beat it. Give me all the time in the world and I will take it all and feel the need for more.

I cannot help but think if I knew I had a set amount of time to live, how much more I would accomplish with the finite amount of days at my disposal.

The only thing we know for sure, is that we are all going to die. If we lived our days with that in mind and made the most the moments at our disposal we would soon exhaust ourselves. Living intentionally - to make something of each day we are given sounds reasonable. Then life happens. Distractions can reroute our plans in a heartbeat. 

Perhaps if we manage our distractions to "real life", put down our phones, walk away from the computer and turn off the TV we could live just a little more intentionally. It's worth a try ...