Once upon a time, a very, very long time ago, Jumping Fish half crawled, half swam in his prehistoric pond. Jumping Fish was very hungry. He floated with just his eyes peeking above the surface, waiting for his buzzing breakfast to land on the water. The insect flew lazy circles and almost touched the water directly in front of Jumping fish. Then it flew one more circle and landed on the unreachable dry land. “Damn!” thought Jumping fish. He watched, near starving, as the insect, along with several others, buzzed innocently on the land just a few unreachable feet away.
Suddenly, then, seemingly out of nowhere, a thought came… a thought that changed the world. Jumping Fish, in a desperate spasm of courage did something that no fish had ever thought of doing before. He flipped himself out of the water and onto dry land, closed his mouth around a huge black bug, and wriggled back down into the pond.
The evolutionary thoughts that change the world come when the time is right. They always begin in a single mind, but not always the most obvious one. On this cool autumn day, untold ages after Jumping Fish, it came to Brother Ant.
Ant was sitting on a branch, a little bit sad because his favorite sitting-leaf had turned brown and was about to fall. He wondered if the tree or the brother leaves would mourn the loss of such a beautiful friend. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the thought came.
“One.”
It was all One, thought Ant. The tree, the leaves, the forest, and even he, were all connected — all one. The tree would no more mourn the loss of a leaf then Ant would mourn the loss of a hair from his leg.
Ant had always been able to feel his connection to Hive, but now, as the thought crystallized, he could feel the patient tree, the rustling leaves, and the relaxed moss on the ground. “It is all One!” he cried as he scampered off to tell someone.
He came upon a rabbit. Rabbit was eating a carrot. Ant stood and spoke his newfound truth.
“One!” he cried.
“Munch” replied Rabbit, seeming not even to notice Brother Ant.
“One!” Ant said again, louder this time.
“Munch” answered Rabbit.
“Damn!” cursed Ant under his breath, “You’re just a dumb bunny!” Even Ants curse from time to time.
“Munch” said Rabbit.
Ant moved on.
Soon, Ant came to a man resting against a tree. “Man is a most intelligent species,” thought Ant. “Man will surely understand.” Or perhaps it was a woman. Ant couldn’t tell. Ant climbed to the tip of a tall blade of grass in front of the man and cried “One!”
Man, of course, didn’t hear.
Ant crawled up the tree close to Man’s ear. “ONE!” he cried at the top of his tiny lungs. But still, man heard nothing at all and shifted around, almost crushing Ant behind his huge head.
Ant crawled back to the ground and lost himself in the towering weeds and mountainous acorns. He began to weep. “I’m too small,” he sobbed his speck-sized tears. “I’m not big enough to be heard. Why did this thought come to me! I’m just a tiny ant. Maybe it’s a stupid idea after all.” He watched a tear fall to the ground. As it struck the earth…
THUMP!
The ground shook, branches fell, Ant tumbled off the pebble on which he stood.
THUMP! Again.
THUMP! Ant looked up.
It was Elephant. Ant scampered out of the way and watched as Elephant reached up to the top of the trees with his long… whatever it was.
Elephant is the biggest, strongest species ever! If I could only tell Elephant! thought Ant.
“ONE!” shouted Ant, hoping that ears as big as the moon would hear him. The Elephant, of course, heard nothing at all.
“ONE!” “ONE!” “ONE!” Ant wailed as loud as he could. No reaction, not even a flicker.
Then, because there was nothing else he could do, Ant got very, very quiet. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and began thinking about, or more accurately, feeling about “One.”
I am one with tree, he thought, and I can feel the leaves.
I am one with the forest, and I can feel the trees.
Ant reached deep inside and felt for the place where he was One with Elephant.
… there … Yes. He felt it.
“And there’s the Man, and the Rabbit, too.”
Now Ant took another breath, but this time not quite as deep because it didn’t need to be. He whispered “one.”
And the elephant turned, the man stood, and even the dumb bunny dropped his carrot. They all looked up with a gleam of new wonder in their eyes.
Mark C Robinson (c) 2000 – All rights reserved