“Hey Johnny.  Do you want to go play when we are done?”

“I don’t know.  Let me check.”

The young ant made his way up the line, passing other ants carrying their loads until he reached his mother.

“Hey, mom.  Tom wants to know if I can play when we are done.”

“Sure, dear.  But it will be awhile.”

“Can you try to get permission for us to leave a little earlier.  I thought we might go to the old tree stump.”

A few minutes later, Johnny’s mom caught up with him.

“I checked and you can leave at three o’clock.”

“Thanks mom.”

“Be home by dark,” she hollered after him.

“Tom, mom said we can leave at three.  Do you want to go to the old stump?”

“Yah, that sounds good.”

The boys continued their training.  They were too young to carry anything, but had to learn the trails for the future.  They had school in the mornings and walked the trails in the afternoon with the adults carrying the loads for their home.

Later that afternoon the two of them hooked up and made their way to the tree stump.

“Let’s just lie here for a while and soak up the rays,”  Tom suggested.

“I’m good with that.  I’m tired of walking anyways.”

The two young boys fell asleep lying on their backs while absorbing the powerful rays of the sun.

“Johnny, wake up,” Tom whispered.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know, but I think something is over there.”

Just then a scorpion crawled on top of the stump to where the boys were sleeping.

“Well, well, well.  What have we here?”  The scorpion whispered in an eerie voice.

“Hi.  We were just leaving,”  Johnny replied.

“Oh, I don’t think so.”

The scorpion moved closer and began to circle the boys.

“Why not?  What do you want from us?”

“Dinner.  I’m awful hungry, and even though you are quite small it will be a fine meal nonetheless.”

“Why us?”

“Because you are here, and I haven’t eaten yet.”

Johnny tried to think, but was too scared.  He thought about all of his schooling and the things his parents had taught him.

Now if he could only remember what, if anything they said about scorpions and how to protect himself.  It seemed they could not get away from him, because they let it get too close.

“Tom, remember what they taught us in school about protecting ourselves?”

“I think so.  Do you mean that time when Tilly got in trouble?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean.”

“Gotcha.”

The scorpion appeared to be getting bored, and was slowing the speed at which he circled the boys.   He was trying to figure out the order of his meal and who he should consume first.

“Now,”  Johnny yelled.

Quickly the two boys came together, and in an instant, separated and ran as fast as they could in different directions.  When they both reached the edge of the stump, they quickly climbed down the bark and scurried under the leaves.  Under the cover of the forest floor, they felt completely at home.

Soon they met up on the main trail leading back to their home.

“Wow, that was a close one.”

“Yah, it was.”

That night Johnny recounted the story for his parents at the dinner table.

“Well, did you learn anything?”  Asked his father.

“I sure did.  I realized that all of the hours I have spent on that trail was not about the walking, but rather about me learning how to protect myself.  I also realized that the power of our family and our people comes from working together.

If I had been there by myself, I most certainly would not have survived.  But when we realized that running in different directions would confuse the scorpion and force him to make a choice, he didn’t have time to choose before we were gone.

I now realize why we are so powerful.  It’s because we all work together.  We may be small, but we are mighty!”

“It sounds like all of that schooling and training is taking shape,”  replied his mother with a bit of pride.

“Yes, I now realize that we can be ourselves, but always must remember what is best for the greater good of all of us.  If we all went out on our own, none of us would survive for very long.”

That night Johnny thought about his day and all of the things he had learned from everyone in their village.  He smiled and realized how happy he was to be an ant.

Ω

InspiraCard

When we all work together, we can accomplish great things.  Just look at nature to see how birds can make a nest to withstand high winds, and ants can work together to build a great home!

Written, Apr 12, 2016 8:00 – 8:19 AM MDT