Dead Stick Walking

Dead Stick Walking

My Vietnamese Walking Sticks have gotten larger and larger - they are now about six inches long. Such quiet, humble creatures are a joy to be around. They will sit unmoving in the palm of one's hand for hours.

If you touch one of their extended legs to your nose, the insect will gently pull back, but allow you to do it again and again - permit you to tickle yourself at its expense.

I finally named the two of them Bob and Not Bob, as this way I could easily tell them apart. If one was not Bob, then it had to be Not Bob.

Today Bob, or maybe Not Bob, is looking rather low. He is not up to his perky old self that could be motionless for days.

Matter of fact he is actually lying down on the coconut fiber terrain in which his delectable blackberry leaves are planted.

I touched him and he responded a bit, so maybe this is sleep mode for Vietnamese Walking Sticks. Maybe after months of moving a couple inches they have to rest.

Or maybe Bob/Not Bob is getting ready to bite the dust and kick the bucket. Both of which would be highly motivated actions for these statuesque creatures.

If so then I am grateful for the opportunity to have shared some moments together. I feel enriched by the life expressed by these insects, so insignificant in terms of human endeavor, but nevertheless consequential within the infinite capacity of the universe.

How grand to be part of the procession of life and death in its vast, stately march throughout eternity. Whatever our stature in terms of consciousness and significance, we are in many ways all one and inseparable.