Growing up I was that typical high testosterone firey kid. A short fuse or some dynamite as other would refer me to. If there was a spark I was right there eager to light that fire. As I’ve been growing and maturing things have changed. I’ve gone from being a warmonger to more of a pacifist.

Nowadays I won’t even hurt a fly. In my experienced days I’ve grown to appreciate the simpler things in life. Like how hard it is to be where we are in this world. It was the other day when I had this epiphany. My morning started just as any other with the birds chirping, freshly arriving back north from the winter. Their morning hymn woke me up peacefully before my alarm screeched through my ears.

I rose from my bed, sucked in the morning air, and raced to the bathroom to take a load off. Sitting on the porcelain throne that sat in the center of my house, I noticed the smallest, baby ant crawling across my bathroom floor. Back in the day I would have squashed that thing like I was grape stomping.

Like the sun rose creating a fresh new day, so did my heart, pure and full of love. Instead I sat there wondering how long or how far has this ant been traveling to reach the third floor of this apartment. Not only that how long but how did his little legs traverse his way to all the way up third floor?

What normally is a eight minute ordeal for me in the morning became this half hour of this spiritual awakening. How hard is it for me to go to work and come home to food that I can pick up an instant? This poor ant has been climbing for weeks or maybe months or maybe even hibernating each year until he finally now made it to the top for what? To get squished by a human foot they thought they could hold. I’m certain they intended to have more of a purpose for their life then just that

I can’t kill insects anymore. If they find their way to my apartment they deserve whatever they’re looking for. Who am I to choose if they should live or die. If I was living on the first floor it’d be a different story. It would be war, they’d be introducing on my personal space. But up here in the third floor, if they make it there, they earned their place to call it home. It’s the least I can do.