Lessons from Charlotte

The other day at work there was a stunning tarantula hanging out around the back deck.  Everybody around me ran away screaming when they noticed it, but I just sat there and looked at it for a while.  

Seeing this fuzzy guy reminded me of how incredible spiders are.  They spend the majority of their lives weaving delicate silken strands into an intricate spiral pattern that could very well be blown away by an untimely gust of wind.  And when that happens, they simply start over and resume their task.  The completion of the web doesn't even mark the end of their endeavor.  Once it's finished the spider then waits ever so patiently for dinner to fall prey to its trap.

I feel like we as humans can learn a lot from our spider friends.  Personally, I struggle a lot with the concept of patience and staying aware that the present is only temporary.  Change will come.  After my spider encounter I went back and reread a passage from the book Animal Speaks by Ted Andrews [a great book, if you haven't read it], and one sentence struck me as something that I needed to hear and listen to in the deepest sense:

Spider teaches you that everything you do now is weaving what you will encounter in the future.

 Incredible, right?  I'm off to go hang this phrase all over my walls so I don't forget the lessons Charlotte can teach.

Images found here.

~xo~