Sometimes Small Miracles Shake Your Senses, In a Good Way

I’ve written previously about our rescue dog, but this isn’t about her, even though she’s an amazing, devoted, loving animal and we are so lucky to have her. This is more about her patience and curiosity. 

We take a long walk every morning and observe new plant growth and blooming flowers that change with the seasons. We watch the growing families of burrowing owls and other birds that come and go with the seasons…at least I do, but she is very in tune with me.

Sometimes we stop and she waits while I pick up litter discarded under cover of darkness including beer can relics, mini-bottles, plastic cups and other assorted flotsam and jetsam, and then deposit it in one of the two street-side trash cans on the Isles of Capri. The City of Naples is faithful about picking up trash on the Isles, for which we are grateful.

So, we walk and sometimes there are unique messages to particularly pay attention to. It could be a warning from a burrowing owl who decides that we are too close to its nest and, after an alerting screech, dive bombs my cap as I’m intentionally walking away.

We’ve found white, wing-like fluttery seeds all over the ground from the Golden Rain Tree recently; she sniffs and I gather. Searching up the tree, there are feather-like structures hanging, mysterious, until you look harder and the tree’s name makes sense.

But the dynamic lesson of the day was this “almost “smooshed” miracle. A small, no very small, snail was heading across the sidewalk directly in our path as we rounded a corner. We both stopped to watch the little critter who was making a B-line from a sunny, grassy area to a more shady area. Intuitive or just lucky?

Remember the book, “The Little Engine that Could?” Watching that little snail as it left a narrow slippery trail across the sidewalk, I couldn’t help but recall the train’s lesson of persistence. 

There were some small berries on the sidewalk that I left there for scale and we watched while the snail traversed the concrete. Miley wanted to sniff it, but I didn’t want any distractions for the little thing. So, we watched its progress in the beautiful morning light. I found out that snails can actually bite – who knew? They have about 14,000 teeth, but the size of the teeth are almost microscopic and lack the force to really hurt you. Not that I wanted to pick up this critter and experiment, but at least I could speak from experience.

Snails differ from slugs in that snails have a shell, which they are born with. A freshly hatched snail has a vulnerable, soft shell, barely visible. To increase its shell strength, the baby snail has to absorb more calcium, so it starts with eating its own egg shell.

Snails are found frequently in Florida gardens where they eat the tender leaves of plants. If you put shells or egg shells around your plants the rough terrain discourages them, so they might go visit the neighbors’ plants instead. There are other methods, of course, if you really have a serious problem.

Back to my little snail. It passed the first berry with hardly a pause. The next berry was right in its path and we, I, rather, watched expectantly, wondering which way it would turn to avoid it. Imagine my disbelief when the snail went right over the top of the berry with no hesitation and kept going until it was free of the obstruction.

Now, isn’t that another little engine that could story? Not only are there lessons in children’s books, but there are also miracles in nature which are so small we might not even notice, unless our curiosity gets the best of us. I’d tell you to stop and smell the roses, but that would be too cliché-ish.