The ant and the spider

Today, I saw an ant trapped in the intricate webbings of a spider. The poor little critter struggled with all its strength to no avail; Barely even shaking the silky strands upon it.

All its trembling did was merely alert its captor of its presence: The ant had only hastened its death.

After senseing the presence of its prey, the spider silently stepped out of its hole in the tree and approached the ant. It calmly latched onto the creature with its spindly legs and bit into the ant.

Sharp, burning, mind-numbing poison coursed through the ant's pitiful little body. the spider happily wrapped its trapped meal.

I wished only to set the ant free. Save it from suffering. It would be the right thing to do; Wouldn't you say? Think about it: I'd be saving a life. It's merely an ant, but a life is still a life. You may not care; Others may not care; But the ant would care. The spider would care.



The spider would care...Which brought me to my next train of thought.

The ant's life may be in the hands of the spider, but ironically, the spider's ultimate survival rests in the hands of the ant too.

The death of the ant would keep the spider alive.So if I saved the ant, I would condemn the spider to prolonged suffering if not death.

Save one and kill the other.

Perhaps it is the cycle of life: That one life has to be taken for another life to go on. Of course it is. The need for death is undeniable for life to move on ultimately.

And so I stood there under the tree; Watching this minute drama unfold itself. I was stumped yet again by the beauty of balance that God has created for the world: For me.

I watched on, mentally parallyzed by the significance of a single ant.

If only I could approach every single event in my life with similar foresight. It was then that I found a new goal in life. A new step in my search for self-transcendence