And God Smiled

And God Smiled

One day the computer worm was feeling ignored and decided to create a race with some other worms to show that he was the best of all the worms.  Computer worm invited Roly Poly worm, Earthworm, Thousand-legged worm, and   Inchworm to join him in a race.

God smiled!

 Roly Poly worm turned to Thousand-legged worm and said, “Who is this Computer worm?  I don’t know him and I have never seen him.  Why does he think that we will have a race with him?”

 Thousand-legged worm, dancing around in circles trying to stay close enough to talk, glared at Roly Poly and in his rapid fire high pitched voice he answered, “How could you know anything anyway considering you are always curled up under a rock and never see the light of day.  I don’t know who he is either but I feel he has a lot of energy and is rather large.  Large worms can’t go very fast so let’s run the race with him and leave him in the dirt.”

Inchworm climbed up on a blade of grass one precise inch step at a time bending it low over where Roly Poly and TL (short for Thousand-Legged worm) were talking and added his two cents.  “We need to know the exact path we are running so I can go practice.  I needed to know how many inches it is so I know how long it with take me. I have a busy schedule and do not have much time for races, especially if they are not on the way to where I need to be.

Earthworm came popping up from deep in the earth laying open a new path he had traveled where the dirt was deep dark and smelled of the plant roots, rain and the dirt itself.  “I think this is not a good idea to have a race.  I am not a very fast worm.  I do not climb trees or blades of grass and I have no legs or energy that makes me go fast.  In fact I was not born to be fast.  That is not in my nature.”

And God grinned

It was determined that the race would start at the big tree go down the hill around the big rock and back up the hill to the big tree. They talked the turtle into judging the race and the crow said he would be the time keeper.

 God giggled

The crow cawed and the race commenced down the hill.  Rolly Polly was in the lead with his ability to just roll around the blades of grass as he headed down the hill.  He did not seem, though, to be able to keep a straight line considering he could not see where he was going.

Thousand-legged worm was making a great effort twisting and turning around the blades of grass trying to keep all his thousand feet from tripping over each other on the way down.

Inchworm was really working hard inching up one blade of grass and back down the other side slowly making his methodical way down the hill.  The crow said to the turtle, “This is going to take a while” as he sat in the tree trying to figure out where Earthworm and Computer worm were.

All the time everyone was hearing a zapping sound flitting about in the leaves of grass and they could see the tips of the leaves turning black and leaving of a puff of smoke.  The leaves were being destroyed as Computer worm made its way down the hill.

God started to giggle.

Suddenly Thousand-legged worm saw the big rock at the bottom of the hill and yelled “We are almost there.”  Running as fast as he could coordinate his thousand feet to do he started to round the big rock and found himself precariously perched on the edge of a river with fast flowing water.  There was no way to get around the rock to the other side without walking through the water. Oh how Thousand-legged worm hated water.  He gingerly put his first toe in the water and shivered because it was very cold. 

Abruptly he heard Rolly Polly right behind him and frantically started to splash all thousand feet at once in the water around the rock.  Rounding the other side of the rock all of a sudden he felt that he could not move and turned around.  Attached to his back side was a big fish holding onto his last twenty feet and legs.  Frantic he jerked real hard and left the last segment of himself with twenty legs hanging from the mouth of the big fish.  With a deep sigh Thousand-legged worm scrambled back onto shore and started running like crazy on 988 legs.

 Rolly Polly ended up in the water next.  And the fish eat him down in one gulp.   The big fishes eyes got very large and it spit Roly Poly out on the other side of the rock.  Rolly Polly had released a whole bunch of spiky hairs on his back that pierced the fish in the mouth.   The fish was not amused.

God’s giggles got louder

Inchworm saw from the top of a grass blade what was going on and leaned the blade over the rock and just started climbing a blade of grass on that side. Then he methodically started back up to the big tree.

All of a sudden a loud crackle and zap was heard and smoke flowed into the river and sizzled. Silence!   Roly Poly unrolled and took a quick peek down the hill.   TL, still running on all his remaining legs, turned his head and gawked at the smoke rising from the water.  Inchworm stopped in mid inch swaying back and forth on the blade of grass he was ascending and just shook his head and sighed. And then continues to inch is way forward.

All of a sudden a hole opened up at the bottom of the hill next to the rock and out popped Earthworm.  Slowly he looked around, surveying the whole situation.  He had felt Computer worm descending the hill on a charge of electricity and, seeing the plume of smoke, understood that energy and water do not mix...  Water had won.

Earthworm crawled back into the hole he had come out of, and dug a path to the bottom of the rock curled up and took a nap. 

God howled with laughter.

You see Earthworm knew he did not have to continue on and try to beat everyone.  We work too hard to be there first.  Where is there?  It is not getting there.  It is the journey.  And the friends we make along the way.  Earthworm knew that.

And God smiled    

Sharen Eninger