I took a break from study to step out into the backyard of the house I rented a room in to have a cigarette.... I was walking around under the trees when the light from my smoke glinted off something just in front of my face - I stopped in my tracks before I walked into it.

I pulled out my lighter for light and looked at it... it was a slimy, frothy mass writhing at face level from a branch by a mucous strand.

I could see 2 slugs twining around eachother in the slime...

I sometimes wonder where my life would be now if I HAD walked face first into that horror- would I have been able to recover enough to hold a job? Could I ever become a functioning member of society? Would I still be heavily medicated in an asylum... ?

I do not know, but it is a powerful reminder of how your life can be irrevocably changed in a split second.