Alate Assist

ALATE ASSIST

Copyright 2021 Don Ray.  Feel free to print and share.

 There from the north  arises a matrimonial flight of ants!  Who would have imagined?!  The stones are covered with busy little ants.  Colony entrances glisten with silver wings.  

What a wonderful surprise!  Thank You!  Thank You!  Thank You!

They launch several at a time, nicely visible against the gray sky.   

There is a gentle flow to this launch, a quiet elegance, not quite the frenetic spectacle of the launches of the larger ants of the other colony I used to watch this time of year.

What delightful surprises the loving Source provides.

One little winged guy has a terrible time.  He walks and flops and spins in circles.  But now away toward the sky!  Finally the hard effort pays off!  

I did not think the little flopping alate could manage it.  

Another walks and walks.  Wings buzz to no avail.  Too damaged?  Too defective?  I pray for him, and pray for all life and all living things trying to fulfill their essence…. but the prognosis looks grim for this little guy.  Look at the effort!  So long s/he has struggled.  S/he will have no energy left even if it can fly.  Such a majestic struggle, the struggle of the ages.  I am as helpless as the alate (winged ant with the role of mating to spread the colony’s DNA outside the colony), unable to assist.  On it walks…..eventually managing a pathetic flight of a few centimeters (inches). 

Finally I cannot help myself.  Clearly the situation is hopeless.  Clearly this flyer has not the strength, or has some defect.  It has tried too long without success for any hope to remain.  It's desperate walk is taking it under the thyme plant where even if it could get airborne it would promptly become entangled in overhanging leaves.

I let it crawl onto my finger.   I lift it up out of the wood’s shadow that keeps the stone cool and I hold the struggling alate in the morning sun.  Wings vibrate in a silver blurr.  It wobbles off the edge of my hand and flutters down toward the waiting stone……..and then rises!  It rises!  Given just that brief moment to learn to fly before being again grounded, it rises!  

Calm and serenity will have to wait for another moment, for this is a moment of jaw dropped wonder and joy!

Let life rise, let us all rise, and let us be for each other the aid and uplifting to allow bodies and spirits to soar.

Copyright 2021 Don Ray.  Feel free to print and share.