The Power To Stop

 hey hey hey it's a beautiful day.

It was a nice sunny day and I had chores to do. One of them was mowing the lawn. I had weeded the grass on the weekend, so now it was time to cut it and make it look polished.

I have mowed the grass hundreds of times in my life. It is the same every time. Back and forth. Nothing special. One end, then turn around, and back the other way,  until it is done. I love the look of a freshly cut lawn. It is just pleasing to the eye. It is one of the reasons I love golfing in the spring.
 
The birds were lurking all around. Chirping and flying all over, it was a feast for them. We just had the first hard rain in months and the worms were rising to the surface.
As I mowed the grass that day, I noticed the dew on the tops of my running shoes.  Because it was August and the heart of a very hot, dry summer, the ground had sucked it all up and the grass was mostly dry. But, the worms were rising to the surface. They always did on days like this. Of course, I am not stupid. I know as I mow that I am killing all sorts of things. Little bugs, ants and, of course, worms. What I didn't get, the birds would. It is a jungle out there,  survival of the fittest,  and all that.
 I am sure that I step on thousands of worms as I mow my lawn. And, I have killed many thousands of ants, worms, flies and mosquito's in my lifetime. But this one time,  I stopped to adjust the cord on the mower. As I did that, I saw a tiny worm, squirming as it rose to the surface, the dirt that lay cover to it now unfurled. A tiny worm, who's brief and totally insignificant life now hung in the balance. 

Of course, this worm probably had no clue that it's life was now hanging in the balance. It isn't human and doesn't have the thought processes that we do. Or does it?

 Maybe worms, and other small creatures,  like bugs and ants, are capable of higher thought processes. Do they understand fear? Can they compute impending danger?
I started to think they could.
And then he spoke to me. The power of the voice of the worm spoke to me. He became a feeling, living thing. He just wanted to squirm, to toil in his soil. To exist. To have the life, albeit brief, that he was born to have. He asked me to spare him, to think of him, to be sympathetic to his feelings. He had a family to consider. I should think of that.
 I never had before, but now I was. I had all the power. He had none. I was a man, a big man. Big enough to just step on him, and end his life. So much power.
Men have so much power. When I say men, I mean humans. Men and women. We can so easily hurt, and kill with the power we have.

 "think it's time we stopped, hey,  what's that sound, everybody look what's going down."

 And that power isn't just brute force. We have the power to love, and the power to hurt with love.  We have the power to enrich hearts and to break them. We can destroy with war, or we can try to resolve with peace. We have the power to figure out a better way. Those are great powers, but most of us never think of the power we have within us. The power to stop. Yes,  I could easily step on this worm. What is one more worm?
 The power to stop. I realized my ultimate power was the power I had within me to stop abusing the power I had.

"war, what is it good for,  absolutely nothing." 

 The greatest power I had was not to kill, but the power to stop myself from killing. I had rarely used that power, the power of a thought process that aims to do good,  to create life,  to preserve life,  rather that to destroy it,  crush it,  take it.
So, I exercised my ultimate power, my greatest power. The power I had that day was not to kill a worm, but to save a worm. Just one worm, but one worm who would likely produce thousands of worms, and thousands of worms who would go on to produce millions of worms. My power was now creation, not destruction.

"think about it, there must be higher love."

 I let him live, and in some way, I am sure I will  reap the benefits that karma will bring me for that.  Maybe he will do what worms do. Whatever that is. Whatever their purpose is,  I am sure that I will get the benefit of letting him get that destiny.

How much power do you have?

How much do you want to have?

Would you reject it if it felt like too much? 

I know I have the power to do great things, now that I realize the power I have is not to destroy, but to enrich..and create.

 "All we are saying is give peace a chance."