A Life Lesson From A Bold And Brave Spider

Sunday morning, I was trying to get ready for a full day of healing sessions in the gorgeous mountains near Berkeley Springs, WV. I was ready to enter the shower at my friends Alison and Sandy’s when I saw a huge dark brown (with some red) spider on one side of the shower – she was so big that it reminded me of mygale spiders that I have seen in other places. As I was already behind schedule (for a change!), I did not even think of asking her to leave or of moving her out. I just said: “Look, the bath tub is large enough for the two of us; why don’t you stay on your side; I will stay on mine and I promise I won’t be long; I will even make sure that I don’t splash you!” Guess what: she immediately ran to the shower drain cover (incidentally, brushing my left foot on the way) right where she would actually receive the maximum of water. I thought: “This spider is nuts!” Then, she retracted her legs underneath her body, now looking like a very big hairy bug without any leg. And she just sat there the whole time…

I confess that I was slightly trouble: “Had I just pushed an innocent spider to commit suicide?” And, incidentally: “Was I looking so bad that I was having such an impact?” The truth is that I was still behind schedule and had no time to argue with a lunatic spider… so I proceeded. As soon as I turned the shower off, the spider extended her legs, all at once, as if I had pressed a magic button. “Wow! What has just happened?”… As she had already started to move away, the spider paused, waved at me (I swear!) and went on her way.

I do not even know where she went after that (I did not have time for that) but I kept thinking: “What was that?”

So as I went on with my little morning rituals, I thought of three options:

1) That spider really needed to take a shower (including because, from the little I know, spiders need enough water to survive) and jumped on the opportunity;

2) She anticipated danger and, instead of escaping, decided to face it upfront, well prepared and fully protected;

3) She is a crazy awesome artist, full of imagination, and decided on the spot to create one of those wildest and most beautiful sculptures spiders can create, but she needed a lot of water for that (see the picture!).

In all cases, I really loved what that bold and brave huge spider did. It felt like exactly the kind of reaction we should have when facing unexpected events of our lives, or even adversity… Instead of freaking out, let’s be bold and brave and inspiring!

Now, this is a true story… So tell me: what is your take on what this spider was (actually) doing?

Béatrice | Contemporary Shamanic Healer

allowingthelight@gmail.com

Béatrice Pouligny
Allowing The Light
October 29, 2013