It was only a web.
It wasn’t why I had stepped onto the trail and some might question whether it was even worth stopping at, at all.
But I was there. The web was there. And I was lost in a moment of low and needed a lift.
The beauty of the web in the early morning light and adorned with thousands of droplets of dew might well have been the thing that caught my eye. But it wasn’t what kept me there.
No, it was actually a source of intrigue as I stared into the complexity of what that little spider had created. I saw her pattern of course and they do create the most eye-catching patterns in the natural world.
But it was only when I stared into the maze and tried to imagine her process of creation, that I began to take on board the many times she went back and added in strengthening strands and supports.
It was no mean feat and while I don’t know how long it took her or how long it would last, I do know that her efforts and ingenuity deserved to be noticed.
I stuck a few images of her web at the end of the blog, in case you are interested.
On a given day, there must be millions of webs all around us. Spectacular or not, they are testimony to the creative process of some of natures most invisible little creatures.
Spiders know we don’t like them. They know that we often kill them when we see them. They know that birds will eat them, when they find them. And yet they hang out the evidence of their existence for all to see.
Do they want to die? Or perhaps they just don’t live their lives in fear of death. Living in fear is often the domain of humans, I suspect. Particularly with respect to death.
The rest of the natural world seems to understand that life and death go together. They are just a stage of the neverending process of existence on this planet.
Everyone dies, but not everyone lives. And some that live, live a small life … small minded, small ambitions, small reach.
Yet some who are small, live big. They stretch as far as they can, spread out their web of influence and coexist with loves whose lives are better for their existence.
Some who are money-rich and big people of power, live small lives that enrich no one around them. They only take, not give. Others who are money-poor, allegedly insignificant, touch the lives of those around them in a way that leaves an indelible mark of love.
The biggest spiders do not make the most impressive webs. The most industrious and committed do.
So as I thought about the highs and lows of my own life and how they can affect me, I shook off the feeling of defeat. As the little spider had carefully revisited the strands of her web, giving support where needed, I too needed to shore up the weak points in my own life.
Life is not a “build it and they shall come” experience. It is something that must be continually tended to and adjusted.
We need to tie off the loose ends that periodically unravel, and move forward in strength knowing that one day, our little web will get blown away and nothing will be left but the loves that have shared it with us.
At one stage this morning I stopped myself and said “imagine you are dying. Right now. Not tomorrow. Not the day after. Now.”
What would we feel about the life we have built and the loves we have shared along the way?
Would we be ok with dying? I don’t mean, do we want to die. I mean, would we lament the loss of life to where we chastened ourselves for all that we left undone?
Because if the answer is that we have so much undone and unsaid, then shame on us. Because we need to be confident that we gave it a good shot. Did our best.
Even though we may have failed at things, it should not be for the effort put in. It is a fools game to assume you have tomorrow. Stop putting things off until tomorrow.
If tomorrow comes then be grateful for it. But do understand that if it comes, then it becomes today and we need to get done whatever we put off from yesterday.
I have asked myself several times, would I like to know in advance the day of my death. Would that certainty help me make sure I got everything done and said, that I felt important.
But the reality is that unless you are on death row reading this, you don’t know when your last day is going to be.
Maybe it’s today. Maybe you won’t even get to the end of this sent…
…ence. Oh, you are still here?
… just a thought.
