Ants

Ants are proving to be the invisible hands of a higher being these days.

Having a notorious reputation for being hard to wake up, I have been known to sleep through construction noises and alarm clocks.  In fact, I am guilty of having murdered quite a few of the beeping nuisances in my lifetime. (Yes, I am aware that they are, however, a useful and necessary nuisance)

So bad am I at getting up in the morning that I have missed job interviews before and on one occasion, would have been late for my first day at work if not for my then-roommate who set her alarm to wake her up so that she can come into my room to shake me awake.

Have I proven my point yet? :-) 

Anyway, I have been keeping very bad hours recently and it's getting out of hand. I would get up only to realize I have missed not only breakfast but lunch as well, and was shamefully close to missing tea. My resolve to wake up at marginally normal hours has been met with slippery success.

Enter the ants that remind me of the fundamentalists who believe in sacrificing their body for what they perceive to be a greater good. I have, for three days in a row, been waking up at fairly decent hours thanks to one solitary ant each morning that would chomp down heartily on my bare skin, rendering my brain no choice but to scream awake. That's three consecutive days of seeing the sun on the east side of the house. And three days of being able to catch Martha Stewart on TV if I had so wanted. (I didn't)

And you know it's a different ant each time because, like I had alluded to the fundamentalists earlier, don't think for a minute that a waking giant isn't going to smite the very thing that causes it pain.

Yessiree, I am thankful for ants these days.

Full disclosure: I do not believe in religion. But I have to admit that I often cannot shake the feeling that there is a bigger force out there, to which no earthly labels apply.