The other morning I walked into the main area of my house and saw a spider had built a web above the dining room table.
Her silks were attached to two pillars: one of the chairs at the north end of the table and the Christmas Cactus that sits in the center of the table.
That side of the house faces east so the early morning sunlight was streaming through the window and backlighting the web. She sat right in the center, as most spiders do once they’ve spun their web, waiting to catch something to eat.
I paused and looked at the web. Then I took a few photos with my iPhone. My kids would say, “Of course you did Mom — when does mom not take photos?”
The images are stunning. The backlight accentuates the intricacies of the web, the marvel that is a spider’s web. Which got me thinking about Nature and the ways Nature works which is in, a roundabout way, the topic of today’s post.
The Very Busy Spider
When my kids were small, one of the favorite bedtime books was Eric Carle’s The Very Busy Spider. If you’re not familiar with this book, it’s one that teaches children about focusing on work that matters. With delightful illustrations, the story has several different kinds of animals asking the spider who is spinning her web to do things with them.
The horse asks if she wants to go for a ride, the goat asks if she wants to jump on the rocks, the dog asks if she wants to chase a cat… but her answer to all these invitations is no thanks, she is busy spinning her web.
Which, if spiders are going to survive, she needs to do because that’s how they capture their food.
Of course there are several lessons you can take away from this simple book.
The two questions I have for you to think about are:
- What should you be focusing on right now?
- Where should you invest your time and attention?
The paradox of our times is that we have more time for things we didn’t before the pandemic hit…and yet no real structure or guidance on what to do with it. Which makes sinking into the couch with a favorite snack and a new series on HBO queued up for the next eight hours way too easy.
Indulge me for a minute. We all have our own metaphorical web to spin, meaning we each have a purpose. Unlike insects and other animals, we humans tend to complicate our existence with distractions.
So many distractions all the time.
My challenge to you today is, what’s a distraction you’ve gotten into lately that’s getting in the way of spinning your web — aka truly living your purpose? Showing up to do the work you are meant to be doing right now like the very busy spider?
I get that it’s easier than ever to fall over the cliff into a ball pit of distractions. We carry one of the biggest distracting causing devices in our pockets or purses every single day.
How can you use your smartphone moving forward as a device for spinning your web vs chasing cats or jumping on rocks?
The answer could be simpler than you think.
