small things {rolly polly}

small things #31 ... rolly polly

After dropping off the kids at school, we headed back down the hill.  Lydia paused here and there to re-distribute rocks that had escaped the landscaping along the sidewalk.  Upon reaching down to pick up a rounded white stone, she startled.

"Mommy!  Look!  A wo-wee po-wee."

Sure enough a little gray rolly polly travelled along the crack in the cement.

Lydia stooped down and gently put her fingers out toward the little fellow.  She was cautious but curious, moving her finger tips back as the bug got closer.

"Do you want to hold him?"

"Yeah."

I touched the little guy's back and he immediately curled up into a little armored ball.  Lydia giggled as I picked him up and placed him gently in her cupped hand.

"Now hold still and he'll unwind.  Then you can let him crawl around."

Within a few moments, the rolly polly peeked out, sensed it was safe and started crawling about again.  Lydia was tickled (quite literally) to have him mosey about her hand, but as he headed up her arm, her eyes go big and she began to squirm.

"Here.  Let me put him back on the ground and then he can go to his home."

As the little fellow scooted off on another adventure Lydia called to him, "Bye, little wo-wee po-wee!"

After he wandered off into the gravel, I thought about his nifty defense mechanism.  

Sense danger?  Roll up in a ball!

How many times is my knee-jerk reaction to curl up when challenges come?

Right now I'm overwhelmed by some VBS planning details (childcare for 33 kids?!?!) and my natural response is to go into hiding.  Today I intend to tackle this problem ... 

Rolly Polly I am not - Courage!