Pine needles used as mulch. Also called “pinestraw” in the southern US. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have been moving some mulch, from a storage pile to our flowerbeds.

It had been a deep pile of decomposing pine needles. Under it, in place of the grass, was mellow topsoil, the stuff gardeners dream about.

Evidently, earthworms consider it the stuff of dreams, too, because as I bustled about, I discovered several clans of them with their lives suddenly interrupted.

We usually think of earthworms as languid, but these were scampering, if a creature without feet can scamper. I had never seen earthworms move so fast. Whether it was the blaze of sun or the wind, they sensed danger in their uncovered state and fled to the safety of the earth almost as quickly as I could uncover them.

I always regret disturbing wild things but sometimes we cannot afford mercy.

As I moved the huge pile, I watched close to 70 worms, each reacting in the same safe and efficient way. If they had an organized evacuation plan, they definitely had 100% compliance. I feel confident they all lived happily ever after.

What did I learn?

As I worked that morning, I chuckled at the thought of weighing their habits against ours. I wondered if anyone would even appreciate a word about how we compare to earthworms.

Probably not, but the truth never dies, right?

I could not get it out of my mind. If we are smarter than earthworms, we can see wisdom in their escape mode. Worms would not survive without it, especially if they lived near a good fishing hole, which ours do.

How many of us, though, can see the wisdom of ourselves living under a good umbrella of shelter, as these worms did?

Of course, we probably have safe houses, but do we live there?

Most of the time, home schoolers do live at home instead of in cars or stores, right? (If not, we need to talk.)

I know of none who live in trees or fields, or on highways. However, how many of us take little trips to cyber-land and in that undetectable way, change residence quite often, exposing ourselves and our families to harsher elements than would make a worm writhe?

And worms aren’t even Christians.

And some of us spend whole days in space, thinking we are immune to the blaze, to the winds of another spirit.