Perspective is Everything

Many years ago, I “discovered” the shadows of ants at dawn on the summer solstice in the Sonoran Desert.  I was living just outside of Phoenix, Arizona and savoring the rich smells of the Ocotillo, Mesquite, and Palo Verde plants that hung in the air.  As I walked I admired the perfect golden disk rising over the edge of the earth that brought both warmth and light to the day.

Suddenly, I noticed movement on the ground in front of me and paused to look down.  On the sidewalk at my feet were hundreds of ants working industriously.  I stooped down for a closer look, smiling as they always reminded me of my father.  In part because he was one of the hardest working men I had ever known and also because he always regarded these creatures highly for their strength, diligence, and contribution to the earth.

After watching them for a minute I decided to carry on and continue my walk.  But, as I stood to my feet, I did a double take and saw for the first time not just movement of the ants, or the ants themselves, but the fact that the ground was covered with shadows.  It was a visual oxymoron and preposterously beautiful.

I knelt down for a closer look and became aware of the fact that these were the smallest ants I had ever seen; as tiny as the tip of lead in a mechanical pencil.  And yet, these ants had shadows that were the width of my thumb!  “Who would imagine.” I said aloud to myself, “the shadows of ants.”

I was so intrigued by what I saw that I stood up and watched as my shadow stretched for 30 or 40 feet to the west, trying to correlate the height of the ants with the length of their shadows in comparison to my own.  It occurred to me that through the eyes of my great Creator my shadow and I were no different than my perspective of the ants and their shadows.

Shadows are an Indicator

Time froze with the sun suspended in space as I again kneeled on the sidewalk and pondered how it was that creatures so small could have shadows so large.  In that moment I heard my Creator faintly whisper to my spirit, “If you stood here at noon you would probably not even notice these ants.  They would still have shadows but they would be imperceptible.  The same ants: a different time of day.  What you see is determined by when and how you see it.  When you view the problems you face from an angle like the sun rising at dawn then they appear impossible with great shadows.  But, if you view those same problems from an angle like the sun at its zenith then they appear insignificant without any shadow at all.”

I have never forgotten that lesson.  Perspective is everything.  Remember The Shadows of Ants.

(An excerpt from my new book The Shadows of Ants: Transforming Your Biggest Problem into Your Greatest Opportunity (soon to be published).

Photo credit: Kaptain Kobold via photopin cc