Saving the Spider, Saving Myself

He surprised me at 6:30 in the morning, climbing out of the bowl of my bathroom sink.

He was having a hard time trying to escape so I thought I would help. I snapped into my Albert Schweitzer role and attempted to help him out by extending a piece of paper, a hand towel and finally a rolled up newspaper…the latter had him scurrying back down the dark, black drain.

It was obvious…no brushing of the teeth or turning on the water.

I jumped into the shower and scrubbed my teeth, shaved and showered all into one, hoping that the itsy, bitsy spider would climb out of the drain and the sink.

I’ve seen him before…we have a healthy respect for one another. Even if Mrs. Spider was a snake, I wouldn’t kill it, nor would I ever go back into my house again. It would be his–mortgage and all.

I remember my son, Connor at a very young age having an EXTRA-ordinary compassion, love and empathy for “ALL LIVING THINGS.”

When the city came and cut down a curb side tree that had shaded sunnier days, he cried all morning sobbing, “It’s one of God’s special Creations!” We still have a sliver of that tree in our garage with the date of the fateful cutting.

He would never tramp on ants or swat flies, spray wasps or bees or, or kill spiders.

He taught me at his early age, what we’ve all long forgotten–THAT EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING IS HERE BECAUSE IT BELONGS AND HAS PURPOSE(s).

I’ve had a new reverence for T H I N G S ever since.

Together we have watched Spiders spin webs, and ants move earth, and birds build nests, raccoons look after their young, flies walk up screen doors, caterpillars and slugs creep across a sidewalk or worms work their ways into the soft mounds of the earth. We even bought a $1.00 feeder rat that grew to be shoe box size, saving him from some snake’s intestine.

We often thought out loud as we watched, if in fact, we weren’t someone’s Pesky Insect being watched, studied and someday just thoughtless crushed, or swept/swatted away or washed down some dark, dirty drain.

Sometimes I still wonder, “The WHAT,” “The How Come,” “What For,” of it all.

I saw that the Spider had safely made his way out of the bathroom sink drain to his old home between the hot/cold water pipes above the mirror.

How long…How long did that take him? A couple of hours? All ten hours since I first saw him early in the morning?

Was it worth it–His climb? Did he feel a sense of accomplishment or was it her humongous myth of Sisyphus come to Life as she climbed from the depths only to once again, soon make the journey all over again.

Did he secretly wish for a merciful swift rush of running water, or a couple of mouthfuls of swished around toothpaste laced mouthwash, or some thick coated bearded flakes of shaving cream?

All I know for sure, was he was snuggled in a web…a web of his own making, I believe, looking back at me thinking and wondering, as I stared, wondered and thought, too.

Maybe the greatest, simplest, NOTICED thing from both of us was: HERE WE ARE, THINKING, WONDERING, and LIVING. . .together. . .un-smushed, un-brushed, un-flushed, T O D A Y.

As absurd as it sometimes may seem, we are Sisyphus-ic to survive and Live another brief, meaningful, moment and, and THAT IS ENOUGH!