Earthworm Guides Me Forward

Each morning I have started pulling an animal spirit card to guide and inspire me through my day.

On this particular morning, Earthworm came up.

Earthworm reminds me this morning, “Mastery takes time, and you’re on the right track,” and “not to be intimidated or lose hope.”*

Just as my mind space was getting cluttered with all the brilliant things my mentors and role models have already put out into the world – brilliant things that I had no way of matching. Earthworm reminds me that there is benefit to the awkward first stages of learning – the beginner’s mind also has merit.

I have my own story to tell, my own poems to share, my own love to give. And I’ll only hone my craft by practicing it and sharing it. Earthworm energy is a reminder that I can be grounded in what I know. Earthworm doesn’t aspire to flight, the soil tunnels and dark, moist Earth are her home. She does what she knows, slogging through and making her way without seeing the next step or obstacle until she has come upon it.

She can’t know that there will be a root around the next corner or rock in the next wriggle forward of her body. And with her long, fleshy, corporeal form she feels not where she will go, but savors where she has just been and is now: the tunnel she has created for herself to lie in, the dirt perfectly formed to enclose and protect her body.

And then, she keeps going.

For me, that means I keep writing and sharing. Keep doing the next step of what’s calling to me. Earthworm doesn’t take time to lament the tunnels she created yesterday and has now left behind. She is only present to where she is right now, day or night.

And keeps moving, one wriggle at a time, ever forward.

Earthworm might not be considered particularly graceful by human’s egocentric standards, but her movements propel her forward, never looking back. Never suffering the pain and frustration of hindsight. Never knowing the longing and anticipation of dreaming for a brighter day.

Earthworm is in the here and now. Earthworm reminds me TODAY IS ALL I HAVE. And my wriggle, is to write, one word, one post at time. Not comparing myself to those who struck out before me. Not losing myself in my own worries of measuring up.

Earthworm is unconcerned about how she measures up against others of her kind. And she lives her life perfectly in her element. Just as I can, if I just take the next right step and share this with you.

My heart calls me forward to that next right step. Earthworm reminds me to listen and act. Because to question, to vacilate, to doubt is not in her nature.

“Just be,” she says. “Just write, and wriggle forward and see.”

What do you dream of mastering? Does the awkwardness of being a beginner ever hold you back? What might be possible if you leaned into the awkwardness and took one wriggle forward and then another?

*NOTE: I use Kim Krans’ The Wild Unknown Animal Spirit cards and guidebook. Quotes are from the guidebook.