POWERLESS (Vaguely Worried)

If you consider an ant’s journey at ground level, its progress seems anything but straight and true. A zig here, a zag there. Up, around, and over. Nearly any obstacle larger than a grain of sand may alter its course. There are distractions – a pool of water, a morsel of food, another insect. And there are critical decisions to be made: should I drop the bacon bit and go back for the Frito? Am I strong enough to carry the entire chip back to the colony by myself? Do I want to spend my life trying? Will my friends make fun of me if I fail? Maybe I should ask for help. Does anyone else even like Fritos?

But from a different vantage point -- perhaps six feet above the ground – we get a more complete and truer perspective on the ant’s journey as it maneuvers through its universe. From this calm and dispassionate overview, its path seems just about a straight line.

As I meander through life making choices, struggling with both daily minutia and what seem in the moment to be life-altering decisions -- zigging here, zagging there – I am constantly seeking those rare moments of transcendent perspective. Because when I am able to step back from the immediate struggle and take a 10,000 foot view of my path, it becomes clear that every decision I have ever wrestled with, whether it turned out good or bad -- everything that happened to me or that I caused to happen -- every inconsequential or monumental event of my life connects perfectly to form a straight line to where I am now. And where I am supposed to be.