As I write this, it is the early days of summer.  Where I live that means the temperature is up around 30C and the humidity generally hovers around 80-90% which feels, at times, as if you are breathing underwater!  It’s also the time of year when many bitey things decide to stretch their legs (or wings) and get busy making and raising smaller versions of themselves. 

That means it can be dangerous out there with swooping birds, snakes under every bush, crocodiles, lizards and a million biting insects warning you not to go where they have chosen to make a nursery – even if it is in the middle of a footpath.  And right now the biggest thing that is driving me nuts (other than the grasshoppers eating my veggie garden) is the spiders.

In this country where it is often kill or recognise the high potentiality of being killed, spiders are, for some unknown reason, on my capture and release programme!  All around my house are little plastic containers with pieces of cardboard big enough to slide under the container and hold the captured content safe until I can tip it off the balcony.  And I do that about 5 or 6 times every day! There is a pathway at the end of my street, which meanders through some muddy melaleuca and mangrove wetlands where, if you are wise, you keep a weather-eye out for crocs.  It was also here that I first met a Golden Orb spider web.  I was very glad I didn’t meet the spider!  You’ve seen movies, usually of the horror variety, where there are massive spider webs bridging the considerable gap between trees?  Webs that look strong enough to stop a freight train?  Yes.  Meet the Golden Orb.  That web was amazing.  About three metres in diameter, I was really glad that it wasn’t across the path but was hanging between trees just off the path.  It was the stuff of fairy tales – or nightmares – as it glittered and sparkled golden in the sun.

A few years later, I met a Golden Orb spider at the place where I worked.  We got quite friendly and I gave her a name – Florence.  We came to an agreement that provided her web didn’t encroach on where I wanted to be, I’d leave her alone.  A couple of times a day, I’d stop and chat with her and I got to realise just how beautiful spiders really are.  And how good they are at catching those pesky grasshoppers!

Spiders teach us patience.  Can you imagine how much work it takes to plan and build a web that is a couple of meters across and only uses seven distinct types of thread that you actually pull out of your abdomen?  Just think about the problems that humans would have if they tried to replicate such a wonderous thing.  These girls are pure engineering geniuses. 

Spiders are known to bring good fortune, which may seem strange because for many people, when you see a spider, you go into panic mode, especially if you find it in your shoe, or your bed.  But they are actually considered to be good luck.  Apparently.  In fact, the only thing that they don’t bring good luck to is the insects that become dinner and the males that they mate with.  100% of males are killed and eaten after mating.  That makes it really weird when you learn that that a number of males actually live on the edge of the Golden Orb’s web waiting for that one chance in their lives to mate and be eaten!  That is definitely what you would call ‘living dangerously.’

So what can we learn from Spider?  What is her message?  It’s time to make creative changes in our lives.  That might be taking a look around yourself and the things in your life that might need repairing or restructuring.  When her web gets damaged, the Golden Orb doesn’t abandon it.  She repairs it.  She works out what aspect no longer works for her and then she sets about fixing it.  In our human lives, we can understand this as us taking time to review what in our lives or our beliefs (or both) needs reviewing and possibly fixing. 

Do you have problems with family, with your home or work?  Maybe with finance?  Are things not working out as you thought they would?  Physically, it’s a good time to look at your health, and see where you can make adjustments to your diet and exercise programmes.  In your spiritual and emotional worlds, do you take time out for meditation, for contemplation or prayer, for gratitude for the gifts you already hold, and for helping others?  Spider says, you can’t catch dinner in a web that is broken.  You need to reweave the threads of your life into a stronger structure that becomes a place of safety and security.

Spider tells us that some things come into our lives and bring with them fun and excitement.  Enjoy them.  Make the most of them, but don’t hold regrets when these times pass.  It’s not possible to maintain that intense feeling forever.  Recognise the cycles of life and learn to understand that there will always be times when the web is broken.  Know that even in times where it seems that your web of life is broken beyond repair, it is always possible to start over and make a web that is stronger because of lessons learned.   This is growth.