There was a time, years ago, when I’d scream “KILL IT!” at the sight of anything crawly, except for babies or drunk people—some drunk people.

Anything with more than four legs would creep me out to the point of begging someone to end its life. What a waste of energy that was! (Not to mention the waste of a lil’ life force!)

Then one day, about 6 or 7 years ago, I asked myself: what the ___ is my problem? Why do I act like a sociopath at the sight of a bug? Why do I imagine these things crawling in my orifices, laying a billion eggs that will hatch a billion babies that will chew through my skin to escape? Why? It’s irrational! Completely!

So then I started to love them… from a distance and on the internet, at first.

Then I got closer, in real life. (Check out the beautiful detail of this spider that was in my mother’s window for an entire summer! IT’S GORGEOUS! And builds its house from its BUTT!)

One day, sitting on a back deck, an ant, an inch worm, and a fly all started to crawl toward me (no doubt testing my pledge of love!). I forced myself to suck-it-the-heck-up and let them crawl on my feet (while clenching everything I could clench!) and LO AND BEHOLD I didn’t die and there was not one egg laid inside me anywhere! WOW! I fell in love (for real time!) right then and there! Wherein, began my protest of not killing bugs and never allowing anyone else to do it around me (if someone wants the bug gone, I’m happy to escort it back outside).

I even express the rule in my house: no killing bugs in my house! (I’ve wanted to make a sign that reads something witty like: if you kill a bug in my house, I will kill you. But that’s not “witty” so much as it’s “threatening” and a lil crazy.)

My partner and I fell madly in love with spiders one early morning, laying for hours, wired on love. We let a teenyweeny baby spider crawl around our hands, letting it explore from my hand to his. I had been letting them live in random places in the house for a while at that point, but when I noted the remarkable contrast of that itty-bitty bug on his big strong human hand, it really warmed my heart! Bugs (as well as humans) are truly amazing beings! They have purpose and beauty just as anything does. And they are defenceless against us. Which is why I take a stand against the unconscious cruelty of random bug killing (Though, I still eat chicken? yeah. I’m working on it. It’s helping to picture chickens as big feathered vegetables).

(For the record: if your house is being infested with bugs to the point of them crawling on your children and eating all of your food, then yes, a lil genocide might be called for. But be sure to do it from a place of love in your heart, no anger on your tongue… or maybe let them have the house and you move? (Tad overzealous with that last thing?-maybe.))

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