My evening plans abruptly changed when someone I had made arrangements to meet for coffee did not arrive. I waited for a few minutes, and headed home. Yet instead of appreciating my open schedule I was miffed. In rebuff I turned on a nature documentary, to fill the time with herds of elk and thirsty elephants, rather than a more productive and thence
satisfying hour at the sewing machine.
Often immersing myself in the sweeping arcs of biodiversity fills me with wonder. But this time I was annoyed. Why does God tax these poor penguins so severely that they stand in the relentless cold without food, water, or sun for four months? All in the thankless endeavor of protecting a fragile egg perched on their feet?
Then there were thousands of elk migrating across the tundra. The hunt
for grass in a barren land pulls them across hundreds of miles, including fawns barely dry from birth. Then to aggravate me even more, a wolf came out of nowhere, and separated a baby from its mother. After an exhausting chase she fell, and succumbed to the teeth of the predator.
Great. This was supposed to be relaxing, but now I was more agitated than before.
Yet a thought tickled the edges of my awareness. In the trajectory of
their lives, animals struggle. Instinct and willingness to follow the matriarch keeps their heavy feet moving. Or standing still, in the case of the Emperors. Yet with all the forces thrashing against them, there was an absence of the ones working on me.
A colony of penguins at the bottom of the earth, huddled for a shred of warmth, does not argue. They are not disappointed, or jealous. Indeed they take turns being on the perimeter, with the most exposure. They
have no tendency to complain, or blame. This is their life, and all energy they can muster goes into enduring it.
I noticed that I was cozy. The extra quilt on my lap was soft, and the snack by my screen was of my choosing. No dangers were lurking outside the window, and there was the ever patient sewing machine in the next room.
What if I could be as accepting as these animals? What would the uptick in energy be if I resisted
those drains like complaining?
I think I will try to find out. Plus my friend called to reschedule.
