Lessons from a roly-poly

First written in Jan 16, 2022

When I was a child, I spent long hours at a time playing in the woods near our house. I was always looking for wildlife, big or small. One of my favorite critters was the roly-poly ‘bug’, aka the doodlebug or, if you’re English, a chiggypig. I would lose myself just watching them move their segmented bodies, seven sets of legs sticking out from under a steel-gray shell, fascinated with their ability to roll into an armored ball as soon as they perceived danger (known as conglobation).

It turns out the roly-poly is not a bug at all, nor an insect, but a terrestrial crustacean, the only one to make it to land! They breathe through gills but can’t live underwater so they feed on rotting matter in moist environments. If that isn’t interesting enough, they also do not urinate, instead, they release gas through their shell, and they drink from both ends through a sucker. But their ability to just curl up and roll away to protect themselves is a lesson we can learn from. Although we are social creatures and thrive when surrounded by family and friends, we also need time alone to explore our interior shells and retreat from the outside world. Simply sitting in silence and observing the natural world is a great way to ‘recharge’ yourself. Unstructured time spent outside connecting with plants and animals is vital for repleting your life force. We focus so much on doing and going that we forget how sweet it is to just BE.

Do you remember your first encounter in nature as a child that left you in awe?