Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about kindness toward animals, especially the small, vulnerable creatures we so often overlook or kill simply because they’ve wandered into our space.
A snake in a backyard. A spider in the house. A tiny gecko on the wall. A cicada molting on a sidewalk. They aren’t inconveniences. They’re just trying to live.
Over the years, I’ve found myself going out of my way to try and help some of them.
On Ilha Grande, I carried a female land crab safely to the beach after watching her get chased from businesses with brooms. She was carrying thousands of eggs and was likely trying to complete her ancient migration back to the sea.
Another time, Claudia and I found an injured storm petrel on the beach. We brought her home, kept her warm and comfortable, and hoped she would make it. She didn’t. Before we said goodbye, I whispered to. her, “I hope you weren’t afraid, and I hope you felt loved.”
I once found a tiny cicada molting on a sidewalk and thought he was dead. I picked him up to move him out of foot traffic, only to have six tiny legs grab onto my finger. We became friends until he was ready for his freedom flight a couple hours later after he finished his molt.
And then there was Praia, a little gecko we found on the beach after a man had kicked him around like a soccer ball. He was missing his tail and barely moving. We took him home, gave him water and a safe place to recover, and eventually he disappeared on his own, hopefully back into the world where he belonged.
And years ago, in North Carolina, I even found myself providing a little “Turtle Uber,” helping turtles safely across roads so they could continue on their way.
None of these rescues changed the world. Most of these creatures were tiny, and most people would never have noticed them.
But their lives mattered to them.
Maybe that’s enough. It should be more than enough.
We share this planet with an extraordinary number of creatures who have no way to tell us when they’re frightened, injured or simply trying to get from one place to another. When we can choose between cruelty and kindness, inconvenience and compassion, we should always choose kindness.
They are only trying to live their lives.
And sometimes, all they need from us is a little help getting safely to the other side.