ants, and my life in Dar :)

Feb 24, 2010

I once did a report on ants for biology.

I was at Hope College, fall semester, and was trying to juggle the first-semester requirements for a pre-med major. It was one of the first of many times that God has tried to teach me to slow down, lean on Him, and trust in His timing and His ways! Despite my unfortunate discovery that I really do despise chemistry (it’s a personal issue, not an over-arching vendetta), I kept on with the bio to fulfill my science requirements and learn a bit more about the world.

We had to do a report on something, and somehow I ended up with ants. I’m sure I have a CD somewhere of my presentation, filled with pictures of different kinds of ants and their colonies around the world. I’d love to compare a few of those pictures to the creatures living here in my life in Dar.

Yes, I do mean living in my life. They’re everywhere. Not just on the sink, and counter, and kitchen after we’ve mopped and sealed and cleaned for the hundredth time. Not just in multiple lines on the way past my door from the kitchen (and back door) to the front door of our house. They live on my computer at school, far away from anything. And under the door of my classroom, and around the door, and in the cracks on the sidewalk, and the cracks in my life…

Is it weird that I seriously was just thankful that I have a laser-operated mouse for my computer, meaning that the tiny red ants roaming our kitchen table have less chance of damaging the mechanism? Part of me wants to research (again) and learn the names of all these different varieties… And then I stop and remember that sometimes, ignorance really is bliss.