Essay

I Saved a Worm’s Life Today

Just a Common Courtesy

I was helping ZM (Zen Master) load up his car today, to head back to Boston.

As we loaded up the car, I spied a really huge, healthy earthworm, making it’s way from one place to another, across the driveway asphalt.

It wouldn’t have been all that big of a deal. But it’s mid October, autumn here in the Hudson Valley, and temperatures are going down. It was a sunny day. We tend to see the worms up and out parading around the driveway after a rain. It has been a very dry autumn here, with no rain. So it was unusual to see it.

I watched it for a few seconds. It was moving at a lightening pace. For a worm.

It was moving so fast, and it was so large and healthy, it really caught my attention.

I told the ZM that I was going to save the worm.

I reached down to pick it up.

It wriggled and squirmed in my fingers. I was careful not to squish it.

It was a little slimy. It WAS a worm, after all.

As I looked around for a place to put it, ZM said, “put it in the garden.”

So I did. It wriggled away. I told the worm, “This will be a safer place for you. This is where you belong.”

We continued to load the car.

After a few minutes, I said, “I saved that worm’s life today.”

ZM told me, “Unless a bird swoops down to eat it.”

I considered that, then added, “One of the cats could get it too.”

“So,” I continued, “no matter where he is, he could be got.”

And that is the way of it. Which was a favorite saying of my grandfather, Poppy.

“Still, he is safer in the garden than on the driveway, where someone could step on him, or a car could drive over him.”

ZM was pleased I saved the worm’s life. I complained that he slimed me. ZM advised me to wash my hands, lest it be toxic slime.

Later in the evening, I told my friend Calaif that I saved that worm’s life. And that I was happy I did it, because if an advanced intelligent being arrived to this planet, looked at me and said, “Oh, look at that worm, here is a much safer place for you to live and thrive,” then picked me up and relocated me for my benefit, I would be very grateful for the courtesy.

Calaif thought about the story too, and after some moments, said, “anyone would.”

If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy this, where I introduce my friend Calaif into my storytelling adventures here on this platform.

© Susan Brearley, 2019 All Rights Reserved

Susan Brearley is a published book author, writer, editor, essayist, occasional comedy writer, and an accidental poet. She is currently working on her second book, a murder mystery about an OCD detective, who’s been called a “young version of Monk”. She’s a retired systems engineer and salesperson from IBM, a serial entrepreneur, and a survivor of a stage 4 inflammatory breast cancer since 1995. She’s also working on her US Coast Guard Captain’s license, has her US Sailing keelboat certification, and is the creator and elder teacher of a new program, “VisionQuest” that mentors and teaches adults of all ages how to create the life they were born to live. She is currently based in the mid-Hudson Valley, New York.