Encounters with
the natural world.

12 weeks out from a marathon, we would meet at 7 p.m. every Tuesday night at the trailhead for 9-11 miles of interval speed work. This trail stretched a good 10 miles uninterrupted by road crossings and enclosed by trees and a meadow–one of the nicest places to run in the city.

I thought rice had spilled on my kitchen floor. I bent down to pick it up and realized it was moving…. And there were many wiggling grains inching across my tiles. I’ll admit I squealed in disgust. I couldn’t fathom where they came from. I began to squish them in paper towel and can still feel them bursting between my fingers 15 years later and still shiver with the same repulsion. It wasn’t until the exterminator came that I learned that a fly had laid eggs in my trash can and the little, white, wiggle grains were maggots.

It all started when Bonnie and I were driving around Switzerland. She was amazed and delighted with the agrarian wonderland before us, full of verdant valleys, blue lakes and towering mountains. One thing that she found charming was the constant chorus of cow bells as the cows moved around the pastures.

One winter day a few years ago, it rained very hard for very long. That night, the temperature dropped to around 30 degrees, uncommonly cold for Austin. In the morning, the entire city was coated in a thin layer of ice. Every last car, road sign, hand rail, tree, and blade of grass was glistening, as though glazed by a meticulous potter. Little icicles clung to every overhang.

The other morning, I was with one of my students, and we saw a spider crawling across the floor of the playroom. It was not a big spider, but it wasn’t unnoticeable either. I started to worry that my student would try to kill it. I picked it up and held it in my hand. My student got real close and asked what I was doing. I knelt down and showed her the little creature. At the same time, I explained that it was valuable to this world and needed to be protected. We then went over to the window and put it out of harms way. It was a moment that I think about often because even “scary” animals and insects deserve to live.