Hey! Hey! We're the monkeys!

Greetings Rafikis!

  So I'm sitting here at home watching "Nature" from PBS, DVR'd. It's an episode about the intelligence of monkeys. Now personally I'd like to think that I have one up on monkeys, but looks like there's a group of them on the Island of Zanzibar that seem to have something figured out, potentially a little more than some humans.

  The red colobus monkey eats a diet of horribly toxic leaves. The poisons from one day of their diet could kill an adult human. This monkey is not the only species or group to do the toxic leaf thing. Apparently they have a some friends down the road or on the mainland (I got distracted here) who also eat horribly toxic leaves. In fact, their diet is so toxic that most of their day is spent in indigestive misery (i'm sure you can imagine the flatulence) because of the amount of special bacteria it takes to neutralize those leaves (or something like that, like I said, I was drifting in and out of attention). But the red colobus monkey figured out a trick.

 The red colobus monkey has realized that if it chews on the charcoal discarded from local human cooking fires, it helps to neutralize the toxins, so it spends less of its energy belching and tooting, instead jumping and playing and having more time to learn new things about its environment, putting it a step ahead of its miserable counterpart.

  Hearing this made me think of great stuff, jobs, and opportunities we have that benefit us, but somehow have a way of becoming toxic. Some may be stressed. Some may be tired. Some may be workaholics. Still, some may be lethargic. Others may simply be unhappy, but still must ingest the "food" that brings the "toxins" because there's not much else one can do. That's just the way life is sometimes. My question is, what's your charcoal? Do you have one?

  Do you have something you go home to that cures the day? Some folks may leave one toxin in the workplace and go home to more toxins, real and metaphorical. Not really the best escape. No, I'm talking about the things that make you giddy for all the right reasons, the things that make you who you are, the hobbies, activities, and fun stuff that are the common cure the all-to-common toxic day. For me? A DVR'd race will do the trick. A quick 5k or two with the iPod in is more than enough. A good song. Finishing a good book. Reading "Car and Driver" magazine from cover to cover in one sitting (I know that could be addictive behavior...also toxic). Some quiet time thinking on and focusing on my Maker. That's my charcoal. Cause when I don't have to spend the rest of my day dealing with the indigestion of life, it frees me up to be free to love God, love my neighbor, love myself and live life abundantly. And isn't that what God wanted for us anyway? (John 10:10) Looks like the monkeys have something figured out. So talk to me! What's your charcoal?

Peace

- Fidi