Go to the ant...

“Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest” - Proverbs 6:6-8

I went to a lecture last night at Harvard by the famous biologist Edward O. Wilson. If you're not a biology geek like me you might not know that name, but if you work in any natural science or environmental field, you hopefully know how cool this is. Wilson has written at least 30 books on various topics, but most of his research is on ants.

In his book, The Ants, (also written with Bert Hölldobler), he begins with the line "Ants are everywhere, but only occasionally noticed". This is so true. Even though ants are tiny, the actual mass of all the ants on earth combined is Four Times the amount of all the earth's vertebrates combined. Think about that for a minute.

I'm also currently reading a book called Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life. It's a very good book that I highly recommend, and it really has me thinking about what I often focus on. How often do we really take the time to consider or notice the small things in life? We're often so rapt up in the business of life that we don't often stop to 'smell the roses' or 'consider the ant'. Its often the little things that make life amazing. One of my favorite quotes from the movie Vanilla Sky is "Its the little things... there's nothing bigger".

I also just picked up The Happiness Project yesterday when I was in a bookstore. I just read the first few chapters so far, but its great. In this as well, the author talks about doing little things daily that make a big difference in overall happiness.

Anyway, those are just my 'little' thoughts for the day.

Also, here are some great documentaries on ants. Awesome! The first is about Edward O. Wilson.





If you want to watch more of this documentary, go to Youtube or my science and nature video playlist here on the blog. Enjoy!