The Sound of a Snail Chewing

February, 2026

One day in spring, at 4 o'clock in the morning, at my home in the center of Amsterdam, I woke up due to a very specific, rhythmic sound coming from my garden. The sound was so loud that it made me curious to find its source. It was in these morning hours that usually held this special quality of silence. So I got out of bed and went outside.

To my amazement I saw a slug in full elongation, stretched out and taking a big bite of a fresh tulip bud. Because of the silence, the sound of the slug chewing seemed as if she had a microphone on, fully tuned up. I really had to laugh, because this was the last thing I expected to see! I didn’t even know that a slug was able to make such a sound!

I stayed with her, enjoyed her savouring the pink petals of the tulip, keeping her balance ‘glued’ with the tip of her tail to some rocks, and swaying with her body, the most beautiful gentle, fluid dance. I could observe the elongation and then pulling together of her body, the shifts inside her body, a perfect example of our tissues’ sliding and gliding qualities. Soft and strong at the same time.

Since that encounter, I feel deep gratitude for slugs and snails, and that morning dance! I cannot unsee anymore the fluid connection with their fluid bodies and ours! This special sliding and gliding quality that we can experience of our fascia moving, when diving into our fluid anatomy in Continuum.

Start a slug dance for yourself:

Lying on your side. Feeling the sensation of sensing into ground and the counterforce: as if the ground moves upwards to hold you. Find the sliding and gliding quality in your body wherever it starts.
If you can’t feel it, just focus on your pelvis and allow it to start moving like a slug…. You might sense an elongation in a certain area, while there might be a gentle pulling together at the same time somewhere else. Follow these movements, maybe supported by a long and gentle, elongated HA-sigh.

Another starting point can be from a sitting position on a chair. Feel your positioning in the space and in relation to the ground. Allow the movement to start from the back of the neck into a protracting, elongating movement. It might interchange with a smooth, gentle retraction of the neck or another area of the spine. Allow the slowness of the slug to shift your body system into the sliding and gliding quality. Imagining your tastebuds, your tentacles, like listening into space, guiding the direction of your movement.

Savour the deliciousness of the movement itself and whatever you are tasting along your way.