06 07 12 Worms Are Teachers Too

Thirty years ago, when we were newly married, Cindee was always grossed out by anything that had to do with manure. I think this may have had to do with the requirement she had as a child of shoveling out the horse stalls. But she hated manure along with spiders and bugs, and hated the thought touching any of these things. Even changing diapers was a bit of a problem.

Perhaps the reader can understand when I therefore say, that one of the strangest days living in our bioshelter home was the day I came home and saw my wife with worms in her hands: red wigglers, actually. When I saw her smiling face and wormy hands I realized that this woman I loved was changing drastically, and that I would have to adjust.

I was not surprised to see the worms. As I wrote yesterday, our house minimizes impacts on the environment through outflows into nature and therefore does not have a septic system. Instead we recycle the gray water and use composting toilets rather than conventional ones. The bioshelter builders included red wiggler worms in the design of one of the toilets.


Many composting toilets require that the owners go under the house and stir the contents periodically. Stirring is essential to help regulate the chemical processes necessary for composting. Some non-electric versions are therefore designed with horizontal drums with a crank for turning them. Ours came with a living, self-stirring mechanism—red wiggler worms.


In our house worms are a part of the cycle of life. The plants feed off of the soil, we eat the plants and give off human waste, our waste (manure and food scraps) go into the compost toilet, the bacteria and worms in the toilet eat the human waste and give off dirt, and the dirt goes into the garden to grow plants.[1]

The problem arrived when we learned that we actually had to buy the worms for the toilet. We found them in a catalogue and got our first batch, a mere handful, at a cost of over $30. Red wiggler worms are not indigenous to Alaska, so they had to be flown up from somewhere South. Somehow contributing to the jet-set lifestyle of worms did not seem part of contributing to sustainable living in the world. It was because of all this, I one day came home to discover we now owned a worm farm.


On the other hand, this is exactly what it means to live well in relationship. Living in relationship means being willing to be changed—to learn and make adjustments in order that all may thrive. Flying worms to Alaska, and adding to the jet-fuel exhaust in the atmosphere, makes no sense when you can easily raise your own. Cindee grasped this fact and was willing to make the change. And, because I used the toilet, too, so was I.


Proper spiritual life is about living well in relationship. Living well in relationship requires learning in order to develop appropriate responsiveness to the needs of those in the relationship. Being able to respond in new ways requires a willingness to be changed, and in significant ways. I always knew that married life would require changes and adjustments. I now see that we must also be willing to change because of what we are learning from the world around us, and just because of where we live.


Actually, I suspect this is true of all people. Where we live, and how we choose to live there, shapes who we are and who we are becoming. It helps if we know this fact and make intentional decisions aimed at shaping both who we are becoming and the future to which we are adding. Of course making choices is not about controlling others. It is about doing our best to live with and for one another—including living with and for those who will come after us.


Like most couples, Cindee and I talked about such things before marriage and expected to learn from one another throughout life. When we bought the house I did not expect worms to become our teachers, though. Relationships always have more to them than meet the eye, and the learning is always a surprise.


Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2

[1] Compost from human waste is safe for growing food if it is allowed two full years to compost.

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