On The Ground

By: Ellen Harris, Ed & Volunteer Specialist

Noticing and appreciating common creatures can bring a sense of grounding and amazement.
Photo Ellen Harris

On the ground sometimes means literally on the ground. I don’t know when you last paid attention to rollie-pollies, but for me, it was a few weeks ago while I was running Tiny Trekkers.

There were rollie-pollies all over the place, crossing sidewalks and creeping under rotting logs. A volunteer who ran the same program on a different day noticed them too! Last night, when I went out to check on my pepper plants, they were even swarming a humid, fungus-covered stump in the dark.

While the pill bug, rollie-pollie, or whatever regional name you call it, is a very common critter, it pays to be like the tiny trekkers (2-5 year olds) and really give the small things in life some attention. For example, did you know that rollie-pollies are isopods, and are more closely related to shrimp than they are to, say, the average grasshopper?

That makes me feel grounded and amazed, knowing that a little piece of the ocean is crawling around the leaf litter nearby. I hope you too get to feel grounded by the little things today.