The Ant and the Grasshopper and “Living” through Chores

The Ant and the Grasshopper and “Living” through Chores

The below Aesop fable describes the necessity of diligence and sustained efforts in one’s life. If I want to really live and not just go through the motions of life, I must maintain a supporting foundation from which other higher pursuits are possible. And I must do my part, whatever it takes.

“An ant in the wintertime was dragging out of his hole, some grain that he had stored up in the summer to air it. A grasshopper, dying of starvation, begged him to give him some of his food, to keep him alive. ‘What were you doing last summer?’ asked the ant. ‘I was not loafing,’ said the grasshopper, ‘I was busy singing all the time.’ The ant laughed and gathered up his grain, saying: ‘Dance in the winter, since you piped during the summer.”” − Aesop

The simple, ardent wisdom of the ant provides timeless advice. To succeed in the Work I have found it practical and fulfilling to do my best to keep my “house” in order. My routine daily chores and responsibilities provide the proving ground for making something from nothing.

I fondly remember an occurrence in which I was vacuuming my home while carrying my one-year-old son in a backpack. I was preparing for a School meeting in my apartment and caring for my toddler (who loved being toted around in the backpack) as I tidied up our flat. I slipped into inner considering about how my place might appear to others, a common struggle for new parents who cannot keep up with house cleaning. The apartment was indeed messy, and I needed to clean it, regardless of my identification with appearances. The ‘I’s raced around but I knew this was the right effort for the moment, so I persevered and tried to focus on the task and to separate from the many inner considering ‘I’s.

Then a Higher State appeared, and a deeper perspective emerged on the value of raising impressions in my surroundings and of “storing grain,” or keeping my house in order. I realized the chore was being attentive to the moment and making my space beautiful for Presence was what mattered most. I verified that keeping my house or being a Good Householder was also a vital part of my internal Work. This chore was an intersection point between the external world of my daily life and the internal world of my eternal Life.

I was vacuuming the apartment as I had done many times before, but I was also seeing with enhanced clarity that I was storing up for the wintertime. It became a joyous and necessary effort. Now both my little boy and I were playing in and with Life. I was giving both him and my Self a ride. My various household responsibilities were not chores nor were they merely “piping” for the sake of entertaining others. I was aware that I was making my life; purposefully making it from one moment to the next, accepting the necessities and chores of the present, and doing my little part to remember myself, no matter how small the chore.

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The Ant and the Grasshopper, Charles H. Bennett (illustration from Aesop’s Fables)