There’s a spider that lives in my carport. I see it each night when I put the garbage out, and I sometimes find myself stopping and admiring. Every night my carport spider builds a web. When it’s finished the web will resemble a large wheel. But it’s a laborious process. First my spider creates a framework, then he slowly and patiently builds a series of lines out from the web centre, like the spokes on a wheel. To do this he must crawl along a web line already in place, spinning a new line out behind him. Once he’s reached the end of the line he crawls down the carport strut and pulls his fresh line taut, then crawls back to the middle to start the process over again.
Once the spokes are finished it’s time to create the series of circles that fit over it. Starting from the middle, crawling from spoke to spoke, the spider builds his first circle. Then another, and another and another. He stops at each spoke to secure the circle to it, until finally his web is finished.
Then my spider crawls off to the side and waits for his prey to fly into the web. I don’t know what happens throughout the night, but by morning the web is gone, the whole process to be repeated the next night.
As I watch that spider so cleverly weaving his magnificent web I am struck by its patience. It seems like such a long and laborious process to go through every night. But if he is to get the reward he needs – the fly – he needs to be patient, patient enough to build the web day in day out, then patient enough to wait for his prey.
That spider reminds me that there are things in life for which I need to learn patience, that there are things that need to be built slowly and carefully if I am to find the reward life has to offer. The web I weave is one of relationships with people I love and people who can be quite prickly, it’s a web of daily chores required to keep a house functioning and routines that must be followed. At times I find myself growing impatient, wishing I could fast track all these processes, or even eliminate them altogether. But they are the web of life, and if I am to reap life’s rewards then surely I must find the patience to build that web.
Source: Scott Higgins