Yesterday I was out in the yard just after dark and I became aware of a sound I couldn’t quite place, sort of a wet clicking or popping all around me. My first thought was “oh no it’s sleeting again” but I quickly dismissed that because it was waaaay too warm. It couldn’t be rain, I didn’t feel anything hitting me. Could I actually be hearing the trees and plants starting to grow….? OK maybe that sounded flat-out kooky. Maybe just light rain? No, nothing on the patio, nothing I could see in the pool of light below the utility lamp by the garage. Huh.

I decided it was so nice out that I’d do a few of my Qigong exercises while I was waiting for the puppy to go potty,* and as I stretched and moved, I kept listening to the soft sounds. Gradually I also became aware of subtle motion in the grass all around me. I hunkered down in a patch of light to see what was moving: it was an earthworm! It was halfway out of the ground and probing it’s way delicately around in the dead grass. There were dozens — probably hundreds — of them,  all venturing forth from the dirt and creeping around. Those soft wet sounds I heard were the worms moving around. How cool is that?

*Puppy? What puppy? You must have misread that part of the sentence. Maybe you need an eye exam? That’s right, move along, nothing to see here…