When I finally got out of bed this morning, I was relieved to find that it was pouring rain outside. Good. When it’s sunny in the Pacific Northwest, I almost feel guilty if I’m not outside doing something. I was in the mood for an “inside” day. The first part of my day was wonderfully uneventful – I made a quiche, watched the latest episode of Will Trent, puttered around the house until 2:00.

(We’ll call this next bit “foreshadowing” – Scott just got home as I was typing this on my phone and, without any initiative on my part, AI began transcribing our conversation: “what are you up to? worms worms bathing worms worms there’s quiche in the fridge if you want some forecast on my app it’s gonna get like 6 feet of snow.” Our lives have become close captioned. I’m a little freaked out.)

Anyway. So at 2:00 I finally extricated myself from the house and went to the post office and the bank. Except for a quick conversation with the teller about her new short haircut (“frames your face, brings out your eyes”), I was pretty much having a “vow of silence” day.

When I got home from my brief excursion into society, I said to myself, “Karen! You’ve got to get moving! C’mon! Go take a walk around the block!” And so I did. And, almost as soon as I’d taken my first step, I spotted a little worm making his way across the pavement. I saved him and brought him to my rose garden. And, realizing that I was likely going to find more worms to save, I found the perfect twig to help me scoop worms off the road. I ended up saving eight or nine. Brought them all back to my rose garden to join the first one I’d rescued.

Saving worms was – and I am not joking about this – the highlight of my day. The Cosmos gave me something I could save today. This is no small thing when one is living in times like these, and when one often feels helpless to make anything better. Today I can say I saved lives.

So when Scott got home and asked me what I’d been doing today, I told him, “Saving worms.” Maybe thinking he didn’t hear me right, he asked, “Saving what?” and I repeated, “Saving worms.” Which got transcribed into “bathing worms” by the ever-present AI that lives in our lives.

Behold, the worms!