The Spider

Okay. There has been this spider just outside my back door for a couple weeks now. The best time to see him is at night when I flip the back light on to let the dogs out for the 27th time. During the day, the web is normally gone, or just very ripped up. In the early evening, he starts his daunting task of detaching the old parts and spinning and attaching new. And he's very fascinating to watch. (or she...for as much work as this thing does, it HAS to be a female...) So she attaches each strand and some nights there is like a quarter or an eighth inch between the little strands and some nights you'd think she's spinning for the pope, president and queen all at once......unbelievable. Every day it's the same thing. Sometimes a big moth will fly into it and damage part of it, but then is when she gets her reward for making it so large and intricate. Well, today, as it started to get dark, I opened the door and she was just sitting there........web all askew and parts hanging. I thought "wow. you have done so well and every day your web is so beautiful. what happened today???" then it dawned on me. Maybe she was just taking a break today. maybe she just wanted to sit and relax and not have to work herself nuts. really spoke to me. I go from strand to strand every day and some days I feel like things will just never be done. So I lit a little campfire for Annalynn and I to sit and watch tonight before she went to bed. We went in the house when it was done burning. Later tonight, as I went to let one of the dogs out, I looked over and there was this big beautiful web. one of the prettiest I've seen yet. Later still, as I was cleaning house, I opened the door to toss an empty water bottle into the recycle bin. the bin was a bit closer to the back door than normal and without thinking I just whipped that sucker over the railing. and in the nanosecond it left my hand I thought, "OH NO!!!" it ripped right through part of her freshly woven web. I felt horrible. now, mind you, I have NEVER liked spiders. But Annalynn is just fascinated with them, so I don't kill too many any more. If she sees one on the floor, she will put her little hand down and let it crawl on her and set it free in the basement or outside. So I guess when some careless dumb a$$ throws a big water bottle at my freshly woven design of life, I have to choose to be forgiving as well and just keep working. Slowly and steadily. the one who really matters sees the beauty of what I have created.