Yesterday I carried my full compost pail from the kitchen out to the compost bin, like I do a couple times a week. A blue-white fuzzy mold had already started to form inside the compost pail. When I flipped open the lid of the compost bin (it’s one of the fancy plastic tumblers that sits on a stand so you can easily rotate it) it was absolutely wriggling with life.
There were not just worms - there were maggots and other small, slimy larvae. There were so many worms that they were crawling up the sides of the tumbler and over the rim. A couple plopped down onto the ground and lay there wriggling. I hope they found their way down into the soil and are having a wonderful time exploring the depths of the earth.
As I emptied the pail into the compost, I kept thinking, “What did I do to deserve this?”
What did I do to deserve all of the worms that are here to happily eat my waste? What did I do to deserve to throw out such wonderful scraps that it nurtures this complex web of life? There is no waste in nature. Everything is food for something else. Of all of the blessings this week, somehow this one feels the richest. Thank you worms. Thank you maggots.
Tonight is a full moon, as well as a lunar eclipse (that probably won’t be visible due to clouds). Apparently, this moon is known as the Worm Moon because it presides over the wriggling insects that are newborn to the spring.