The kids and I were cleaning up the yard after chicken butchering the other day, picking up feathers and garbage and wandering around the place when I noticed a few of them squatting in a circle looking at the ground. I went over to see what they were looking at, and I'll admit get them focused back on yard clean up. I got closer and I realized that they had found a black ant 'thing.' It wasn't a nest as it was only about 20 ants under a piece of bark but the ants had eggs under the bark and when the kids had lifted the bark the ants had started to 'clean up' and 'hide' the eggs. It was really neat and I joined them in watching the ants as they hurried here and there and slowly disappeared from sight. I looked and looked but it took me several minutes, and over half the eggs, to find out WHERE the ants where taking the ant eggs. It was a hole so tiny the eggs barely fit down it but one by one the ants were methodically finding the hole and taking the egg they carried down the hole to safety. It was really neat to watch. There was no ant overseeing the rest, they just worked together for the good of the hill.
Teamwork is something Papa and I have tried to instill in our children. It's a hard thing to teach. People are by their very nature selfish and it's sometimes hard to catch selfishness if your not looking for it. Selflessness is easier to see I find. I do like to reward my kids for selflessness when I see it just like I do try and show them their selfishness when the need arises. Selfishness can be seen in speech, deed, and attitude. Sometimes all in one horrible swoop. We've found the best way to deal with selfishness in ourselves and our children is to ask 'Is that the way YOU want to be treated??' The answer is almost always no. "Then treat others the way you would like to be treated." A great lesson for us all.
Christmas 2013
