Day 223
I'm in a long-term rehabilitation program right now to treat my arachnophobia. I "checked myself in" to this self-made program at some point in the past year or two, after finally realizing my fear was just controlling me too much.
So far, I've been doing well. I even had a major breakthrough last winter while watching a camel cricket get caught in a web inside my house. Just seeing a spider do something that good made me feel so much better about having any of those arachnids in the house!
Today I want to tell you about the spider I keep seeing by my kitchen sink. He's been there for the past two weeks or so, and doesn't bother me at all. In fact, he usually stays hidden. You know that pull-out faucet some kitchen sinks have on the side? Well this little guy has made a little home for himself in a small hole in the back of the tube for that thing. All I can ever see of him is one or two legs hanging out from the inside.
Can you imagine that? With just one leg out, he can tell what's going on outside his little hole. Isn't that cool?! With just one-eighth of his appendages, he knows what dangers may lurk outside, what the situation is in my kitchen, and when it's safe or unsafe for him to come out.
I marvel at this, I really do! And I wonder what life would be like if I could do this too. What if I could just wrap three fingers around my bedroom door to know whether the house was warm enough for me to come out on a cold winter's morning? What if with just half a foot out, I could tell whether the mailman had come, or if the rain was falling outside? What kinds of tricks could we do with this kind of security and power?
I'm still afraid of spiders, but I've come a long, long way in just the past year. I'm learning to hate them less, and appreciate them more. When I see one scramble out of a radiator or from behind my washing machine, I still jump and shriek, but I don't subsequently loathe the creatures like I used to. Instead, I talk to them. I thank them for capturing those hideous camel crickets I will forever hate and fear (with no regret). I wish them well on their journeys too, and sometimes even escort them outside my house on a paper plate or inside a container--a far cry from the murder I used to commit.
Spiders serve a purpose, after all, and the spider by my sink? Well, maybe he's been secretly saving my life from smaller insects, who knows? I hope to discover the secrets to this spider's super powers one day soon, but in the mean time, I'll keep marveling with a smile at his one leg dangling out from that hole. I'll smile to know he's got some secrets to life I still don't. And for now, that's enough to make me appreciate his company, if not yet his friendship.
