Observing the animals, it strikes me that the biggest difference between mankind and animalkind can be stated as "time", and it is the way they are superior to man.

To an animal, time is cyclical, not linear. Everything is governed by cycles, so concern about what happened "before" or what happens "next" is meaningless. Animals live in the moment, not worrying about what happened in the past and not worrying about what might be, but just concerning themselves with the necessities of "Now".

Contrast that to man. Man's life is also governed by cycles, but man tries to find shortcuts and tries to live outside of those cycles. Think about ALL of the worries of man. Each of us can pick any worry that we have...what do you find? This isn't a trick question. The answer is that every single worry is either rooted in the past, or in the future. We worry because of something we DID or that was DONE to us, whether an injustice or simply something we wished we'd done differently. We worry about future events that have not yet occurred...how am I going to pay that bill, is the boss going praise me or dump on me, what am I going to have for dinner tomorrow night, etc. As an exercise, write down 10-20 things you are worried about right now, then when you have the list, decide which are worries about the past, which are about the present, and which are about the future. For nearly every person, there will be NONE that are worries about the present. Yet the past is over...we may regret it, but we cannot change it and shouldn't worry about events that are past. The future has not yet been written and we don't have control over all the variables, so while we can look at the future with expectation and hope, we shouldn't worry about that which doesn't yet exist.

We all need to learn a lesson from our brother animals. If we live in the now, our worries vanish. The now is the only thing we have control over, and the only thing worthy of worry. Yet we have not lost the animals ability to simply deal with the now, rather than worrying about it. Rejoice in every moment...that moment is the only one that exists, after all, and each is a treasure to be enjoyed.

Today, when you find yourself overwhelmed and consumed by worry, remember the lesson the animals give us, and even if just for a short time, try living in the Now.