This morning I had a talk with a centipede. It was on the bedroom wall. My instinct was to go get the Raid. But then I remembered that in holistic terms centipedes represent forward movement. This gave me pause.

Then I spoke. If you walk up, up, up, I told it, you will live. If you disappear soon thereafter, I said, I’ll pretend our paths never crossed.

It did and it did.

And all it left behind were delicious thoughts of forward movement.