Member-only story
Ant Hill in Winter
Looking at the Ground, in the High Desert
A winterized anthill in the high desert. The small, scurrying insects have gone underground for the season. Do ants hibernate? And I wonder?
According to my 1987 vintage of Webster’s . . . Ants show highly developed social organization and complex behavioral patterns. All have well developed sense organs. That last sentence seems to add some credence to the notion of some form of hibernation.
In the Sonoran Desert where I grew up, the ants were active all year round. Maybe they slowed up a bit in the cooler temperatures of winter. Though 70 degrees is not uncommon from Winter’s Solstice right on through Spring’s Equinox.
All of this wonder at ants in winter, came as a result of discovering this small scene while out walking. It was the forms and contrasts in this microcosm that pulled at my attention. This resulting image offers the opportunity to wonder on at length about the life of ants, in the high desert, during winter’s cold.
Somehow all this time spent out walking, wandering around and looking closely at the details of the life cycles all around, I feel connected to and a part of this larger wholeness.
During these days of pandemic, distancing, and isolation, — it is nature, in its Winter rawness that soothes my nervous system as well as my soul. Poking my toe in the dirt and getting down to look closely at an anthill reminds me, I am but a small piece. And that is enough and I am grateful.
