It is a mark of the New Year for the Pagan religion and this year, I feel more then ever it is the mark of a New Year for me. Partly to do with launching my photography business, and part due to the fact that a year ago around this time marked the end of certain things in my life. At the time I felt my world was over, and as the New Year struck this time last year I unknowingly had set upon a course of rest, reflection and exploration. What at times seemed a long - drawn out - painful year, is now showing me the reason why these things happened...and so things change yet again.
Most people mark the New Year as the changing date on the Gregorian calendar that we have followed for centuries, by making their resolutions to change themselves for better in the upcoming 365 days many of said resolutions having to do with some sort of trying to perfect the physical self.
I myself have done this countless times, and most likely will continue to do so. But THIS New Year is different for me. I wasn't even sure how - until this morning when upon waking and looking out my second story window on a crisp clear and yes COLD for southern California fall morning - I happened to see that one of the resident spiders in my garden had worked an incredibly large web - suspended so high it was eye level with me and spanning the distance I can only guesstimate at 8 or 9 feet across from the tree it was anchored on one side, to the fence far below and over on the other.
Spiders are a symbol of Halloween for sure, and they are plentiful here in Venice this time of year. The past 2 falls while living here in my beautiful gated courtyard complex, I would either wake to the grumbling sounds of my rather tall neighbor Dr. D as he would be heading out to work and run into a web that had been spun in the night, or if he went out the other direction - I would be the unwilling victim of a web getting tangled in my hair as Asher and I set out for a walk. Now I know they catch flies and bugs (better then the "as seen on tv" fly catching system I bought at Bed Bath and Beyond for a wasted $9.95 that sits empty day after day mocking me as I swat flies away) - but still I have never been a fan of spiders, webs or anything like that.
Then I saw this web. Now you will see it not perfect, it has already been damaged by the wings of the winged bugs ensnared in its sticky filaments, but what struck me enough to stare and then grab my camera was the MAGNITUDE of what this small creature of the planet had created. Something so functional yet temporary. Spiders work and work and work to spin these complex webs to create something that enables them to get what they need to survive. And all it takes is a large bug , or a human of the right size to knock it all down.
I started thinking about that. All the spiderwebs in my courtyard the past few years I have either unintentionally or intentionally destroyed, and the fact that the very next day - there would be another in its place, sometimes larger and more intricate, sometimes angled in a way that I wonder if they are trying to figure out how to make it so it will not be destroyed THIS day. Spiders don't sit around lamenting the loss of all their hard work and toil. I doubt they put their head in their (multiple) hands and say "why me" or "what do I do next". No, that is something for us humans to get mired down in, instead they get right back to work and re-build. That's it, what they built, their home, their world gets blown away - and they re-build and move on.
Amazing that after a year of questions, and searching one morning a spiderweb in my yard begins to put it all in perspective for me. Things break down, plans don't always work out but the best thing you can do for yourself is start again. Make it bigger, bolder, different, but re-build. Don't dwell on what has been lost - but look towards what can be.
The past is gone - today is full of possibilities.
Happy Pagan New Year!
And that, my dear, is the secret - never give up.
ReplyDeleteNever.
Molon labe!
P.