The Centipede

There is a creature in the kitchen sink. It has about 50 legs on each side of its long, light brown, bendy body with tiny hairs that look like peach fuzz.

The devil has come for me wearing the skin of a simple house centipede.

This creepy crawly has antennae protruding majestically out of the front and back of its body, twice as long as its legs. It can’t see well, but is able to navigate with those ever-busy information-grabbing antennae. It tries to escape the damp porcelain walls of my sink still splattered with some of last night’s leftovers. I tried to count its legs but the little demon is moving too fast and erratically. 15. I count 15 hairy legs on each side. Wow, 30 little legs! Imagine having all of that mobility. Shame though – all those legs and no exits for miles. It makes an inch of progress as it climbs up the slippery side only to slide back down again. It repeats this process over and over. Am I cruel to watch its failure or just curious?

I wonder what purpose the centipede serves. Will it still be attempting to escape its watery prison once I finish writing or will it have slithered its way out into a crack in the wall, lurking and waiting in the soothing calm of a near-empty house, ready to pounce and swallow me whole?

An insect no bigger than 2” has crawled its way out of the bowels of my kitchen pipes and into the light of this sunshiny Wednesday sparking a fountain of creativity in me again. I think I’ll leave the poor insect alone for now as I’m running out of my coveted morning time and need to venture off into my work world.

I swiftly forget about my morning visitor the moment I leave the house. When I arrive home and go to the sink to wash my hands, I experience my earlier horror all over again when I see him slinking around my sink still trying to find a way out.

I put a paper towel in his path and he happily climbs aboard. I frantically flick him into a deep (hopefully deep enough) mixing bowl before he can jump off onto my skin and eat me.

The sun is shining hot and intensely on my backyard porch. Light! This is a perfect place for a photo shoot with my new buddy. Snap, snap, snap. This slippery serpent looks exquisitely beautiful somehow to me now. Perhaps it isn’t the devil who paid me a visit today, but one of God’s abundant creatures who got sidetracked along the way, looking for some snacks or a cozy place to lay eggs. (I hope not the second.)

I am reminded to take time out of my day to appreciate the little things. Life’s best moments are the small, seemingly insignificant ones.