with time, with space, we find our way

a reminder amidst a los angeles heat wave

My snail has been flirting with estivation all summer. It’s a completely normal thing — snails sometimes go dormant when it’s extra hot and dry, which it’s definitely been here in Los Angeles for the past few months.

When Houdini, our accidentally adopted mollusk roommate, first suctioned himself against the glass of his habitat and built an additional layer of weird goop around his little shell, I panicked. I was certain it was his time to move on. My partner and I had found him as a stowaway on a plant a bit over a year ago at that point, and expected the worst.

Luckily, it’s been another two months since and I just now saw him wiggling his eyeballs at the fresh carrots I left him.

Snails are such a delightfully well-known symbol of slowing down, and in the last year of watching Houdini roam his habitat and explore the various items we put in there for him, I’m always in awe of how much certainty he has in carving his path. Every step (slither? slime?) forward with his singular squishy foot is intentional, no matter how far away the next anchoring point is.

After I began extra-replenishing the water in his habitat, I was relieved to see Houdini emerge from his weird shell goop with his eyeballs more wiggly than ever (see grainy, low-qual video from today below).

As always, he’s just a snail doing snail things — dancing his little heart out, embracing unbarred curiosity, moving forward fearlessly, being kind of a baby about the weather, and taking his time with it all. I hope this can be a little reminder for you to do the same (well, maybe not so much the being a baby part, but that’s entirely up to you).

with time, with space, we find our way