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The story of an ant

One morning I wasted nearly an hour watching a tiny ant carry a huge feather across my back terrace. Several times it was confronted by obstacles in its path and after a momentary pause it would make the necessary detour. At one point the ant had to negotiate a crack in the concrete about 10mm wide. After brief contemplation the ant laid the feather over the crack, walked across it and picked up the feather on the other side then continued on its way.

I was fascinated by the ingenuity of this ant, one of God’s smallest creatures. It served to reinforce the miracle of creation. Here was a minute insect, lacking in size yet equipped with a brain to reason, explore, discover and overcome. But this ant, like the two-legged co-residents of this planet, also shares human failings. After some time the ant finally reached its destination – a flower bed at the end of the terrace and a small hole that was the entrance to its underground home. And it was here that the ant finally met its match. How could that large feather possibly fit down that small hole? Of course it couldn’t. So the ant, after all this trouble and exercising great ingenuity, overcoming problems all along the way, just abandoned the feather and went home.

The ant had not thought the problem through before it began its epic journey and in the end the feather was nothing more than a burden. Isn’t life like that! We worry about our family, we worry about money or the lack of it, we worry about work, about where we live, about all sorts of things. These are all burdens – the things we pick up along life’s path and lug them around the obstacles and over the crevasses that life will bring, only to find that at the destination they are useless and we can’t take them with us.

Author Unknown

{ 29 comments… add one }
  • Susy February 12, 2021, 10:40 am

    Sometimes life is just about the efforts and lessons we learn along the path, even when we fail. I wonder if the ant will remember any lessons from his journey? Humans don’t always. On another thought, I don’t know how smart ants are but I will assume from the story, he wasn’t smart enough to think it through when he first picked up the feather. Humans have a higher level of thinking capabilities, but I can think of a few who would have attempted to bring the feather home; some would attempt out of ignorance, others out of arrogance; some would have given up upon encountering the crack in the cement. Nice short story; thanks for sharing.

  • Adeoti Christiana October 11, 2016, 6:50 am

    Wow! Wow! Wow! I am lifted and motivated.

  • Noble segbephia July 11, 2016, 10:42 am

    Ant is a blessing to mankind. Those who take the trouble to know more about an end end up being a wise person.

  • Erine_gee November 8, 2013, 12:18 am

    Yeah, so true.. leave your burdens behind and let God does the work for us coz with Him all the things we’re worrying too much will be made possible.

    • Joy May 29, 2020, 6:29 am

      Yh. u are right dear

  • Sneha September 4, 2013, 5:04 am

    Hi, I liked the story very much. Been around this site for a while now and this place is really AWESOME!!!!!:) And about this story, why do we have to think that the ant’s action was in vain… how I see this is, may be the ant used that feather to cross the 10mm wide gap on the floor. It left the feather outside its home because it does not need the feather inside. Probably it will take the feather again if it wants to go somewhere.. to pass through the gap :p it’s just one way of seeing things… hehe :d

    • Joy May 29, 2020, 6:31 am

      Yes same here baby

  • Abhyudha October 31, 2012, 5:17 am

    A very lovely story! Liked it very much 🙂

    • Joy May 29, 2020, 5:25 am

      love it

  • Clay 1 October 9, 2012, 3:36 pm

    You can build a mountain from a mold hill but at the end all you get back to is the mold hill.

  • Mahesh September 28, 2012, 6:16 am

    It’s a very nice story.

  • Dipti September 18, 2012, 2:56 pm

    It is just wow….!!

  • Dr.Dania david September 16, 2012, 7:09 am

    Good one

  • Jayasree September 12, 2012, 3:44 am

    Wow! nice story every one should think about it.

  • Riddhi Rameshan August 24, 2012, 3:32 am

    Fantastic story but it should be elaborative and the content should be in simple english which should be understood by children.

  • Med August 17, 2012, 5:22 am

    This is incredibly the most heart touching story I have ever read. It’s so expressive and matching to our life, we should think of this small creatures, they are barely nothing for lots but they actually so meaningful and have a lot to tell us if we look brightly.

  • Arpita August 11, 2012, 10:21 pm

    Wonderful message, yes we often forget the truth.

  • SUNSHINE August 11, 2012, 9:12 am

    We are temporarily in this world… As long as we feel contented we will leave this world without burden…What we earn from the world we return to it in the end….^^

  • clarke August 9, 2012, 4:22 am

    Speechless

  • Maremi Tersoo August 5, 2012, 5:13 am

    Nice story. Lesson: always start with the end in mind.

  • Rebecca Palermo Gonzaga August 4, 2012, 7:53 am

    The moral lesson is we have to work for our temporal needs in this world, but we have also to work harder for our eternal life for we can’t bring with us our wealth when we die.

  • Onah Ijeoma Juliet August 4, 2012, 7:44 am

    Wow what a cute story

  • Mwaura July 27, 2012, 2:05 pm

    I like the notion that ants think. It reminds me the story ‘how much land does a person need’ by trosty.

  • Excel July 27, 2012, 4:43 am

    Chai! That’s so heart touching story. But the feather also helped the ant somehow.

  • Govind singh July 24, 2012, 4:11 am

    I like it. It is a very heart touching story. It express that love is immortal. Love never die.

  • Madhav July 20, 2012, 7:15 am

    The things we carry throughout the life are never burden. That is the life. The wisdom of our inability to carry it to the end turns it in to the burden. It is so tragic.

  • Bhavini July 20, 2012, 3:16 am

    Nice

  • Shakunghala July 17, 2012, 1:15 am

    Nice story realistic

  • Misty_shelle July 16, 2012, 11:04 pm

    It’s really true..a lot of times we keep on worrying on what happened to our life.. but in the end of our journey..It’s only our self that we need to bring back to our home…

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