Sylvia's Journal

Our grandson and two ants found their way into our sugar pot. We knew about ants liking sugar. And we are more than a bit amazed that these two enterprising ants were the first two to have found the pot since we moved in here 27 years ago.

That our grandson (8) found it is no surprise as it is a bit below eye level for him (and he has known about its existence for at least 4 years). Faro is attracted to sugar like an ant. His parents have put him on a low sugar diet (not because he needs to lose weight, he is thin as a reed, but because they are convinced he should not be eating much sugar). My parents did the same with me, but I managed to find sugar anywhere, knew exactly which of my friends had candy jars or mothers who were less strict about sugar. I ate more candy than anyone I knew and still have a sweet tooth. My 123&me genetic profile claims my haplotype prefers sweets. This is not a surprise.

We are taking the ants outside where, as our granddaughter remarked, the ant’s family resides and is waiting for the return of their curious son or daughter. I like the idea of a family reunification.

We are not killing the ants. For one, as someone told me, when you squeeze them to death, they leave a scent that bring out the burial brigade. I am not sure whether this is true or not, but I like to imagine the ants outside sniffing the air and knowing one of their own has died and needs to be taken care of.

There is another reason. Ever since I learned (from Jamie Sams’ Animal Medicine) that ants carry the message of patience, I stopped squishing them. I say a brief thank you and then take them outside, where they belong, so they can carry the patience message to others, since patience is a hugely important quality these days. 

Aside from the patience we need to have with things unfolding in the age of COVID-19 (can’t travel, can’t go to visit my relatives in Holland, can’t do this, do that, yet), we will also have to be patient with a major renovation that starts tomorrow with the demolition phase. We have decided to ‘age in place,’ and in order for this to work we are reconstructing a fully equipped bedroom downstairs – fully equipped meaning that I won’t need to get up and down stairs to go to bed, to brush my teeth, to do the laundry, etc.

The demolition crew arrives tomorrow. I am a bit anxious about it, but also very excited – we have been planning for this to start for over a year now.