Shifting from past to present

Hi,

I'd appreciate it if someone would comment on the piece below (seven paragraphs). I've been told the movement between past and present is confusing. I also feel some of my sentences might be overly long. Do you agree, and how can I fix it?

Thanks.

Sarcandra

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Clinging with ease to the gnarled gray-green bark of a flame tree, a huge red ant stands on the alert. The round head is held high, jointed antennae upraised to catch messages in the wind. The upper body segment or thorax seems a glossy and impenetrable armor. Even the plump abdomen has a dignified tilt. There is grace in the symmetry of its form, a central body axis with three slender angled legs and an equally slender antenna on each side. A mere three human steps away from the tree, the ant is insignificant, practically invisible against the scaly bark. Up close, the tiny creature looks brave and noble.

It’s mid-afternoon and I'm in a mini park within the University of the Philippines or UP Diliman campus, observing a line of ants going up and down a tree trunk. With its statue at the center, a scattering of trees, and benches marking its perimeter, the park serves as a refuge for students in between classes. With its resident insect population, it is also my field research site for a paper I'm writing about ants.

I had enrolled in a creative nonfiction workshop course for my master’s in creative writing. When we were required to write about a particular thing of our choice, the first idea that popped into my head was insects. I had been fascinated with several in childhood, especially ants. Since they were so common, ants would be easy specimens to research and talk about. What household doesn’t know them?

I aim my camera at the poised ant, hoping for a clear image that would somehow embody the allure that ants held for me and enable me to articulate what I would say about this ubiquitous, everyday species. When I told some friends about my topic, they wrinkled their noses or stared open-mouthed. “Well, to each his own,” one quoted sardonically. That helped crystallize my message: ants—common, pesky, dirty, itch-inducing—are marvelous creatures with incredible abilities and admirable qualities; extending that idea, the world, familiar and unremarkable to many people, is a place of beauty and wonder, if only we stopped to consider its evident splendor.

As a child I had oohed and aahed at almost every flying, creeping, crawling, jumping organism (some exceptions being roaches, mosquitoes, and flies), not to mention furry ones and green or blooming ones as well. Now I wanted other people to see the natural world with the same sense of awe, to stop by a bromeliad outside a stranger’s house to peer into the hidden water-world at its heart; to notice that in the crevice of a rock a spiny worm has sheltered; to examine the shifting tapestry of shadowy tree branches and variegated leaves against the sky’s blue, white, or gray canvas—all without a thought to what people would think or to the time seemingly wasted, because delighting in these things would seem the most natural thing to do.

It had been a while, though, since I myself had done those. In fact, I hadn’t paid attention to ants in years. Nowadays I think of insects in terms of equipping our home with Baygon spray. So my first assignment for this paper was to get reacquainted with my subject, thus this quality time together by the tree.

My model starts crawling, and I try shooting meaningful photos of other ants helping each other carry a small brown beetle down the tree or perching on a thin twig with baby leaves. Unfortunately I’m getting, well, antsy. As ants are wont to do, most of the time they were simply moving up or down in a disorderly column. Nothing exciting about it. I end the photo session disappointed that the enchantment I felt watching them as a child had not automatically reappeared.