Rushing through my day I find few places to sit and rest, gather myself, collect my thoughts. There is one place, a secret place, I found that I’d like to share with you.
Somewhere on the college campus between room 120 and the math lab is a restroom. Restrooms are common and not much of a secret but I found something secret inside this restroom between room 120 and the math lab: a spider’s home.
This humble home is positioned perfectly on the floor between the tiled wall and the stainless steel footing of the stall frame. The janitor’s mop has yet to find it. For the last five weeks I have noticed that this spider is busy. Some days the nest is messy with potato bug carcass and hair, other times it’s clean, quietly waiting for dinner to drop by. Today I discovered another spider, dead and dry, it’s juices enjoyed, all curled up at the top of the flossy web, left out to hang like a flag of victory. Now it’s getting interesting…
I’d like to offer up that this barbaric scene of the spider world is natures version of the television series. Time will not allow me to binge-watch this adventure. Binge-watching is when you watch a whole season(s) of a show back to back until your brain turns to mush. The last time I did this was with AMC’s “The Walking Dead” seasons 1-4 in 3 days. I was almost zombie material by the end of that binge. Pun intended.
So here is this little frame of nature, inside a tiled room, the spider is just living—doing it’s thing. Everyday that space, that three inch bit of real estate, looks a little different. Although I have yet to see the spider, I can guess how it’s day is going based on the condition of it’s web. I always take a quick look when I can. Today, after five weeks of spying, I asked myself “Why?” (I’m slow like that)
I thought about the time birds built a nest under my roof and I listened to the sound of the babys growing stronger, tweeting louder, until they left. I thought about my flower garden in Port Orchard and watching different flowers and bushes changed throughout the seasons. I remembered years of watching a neighbors slow progress repairing their “fixer-upper” home, until I could no longer see the old house it use to be. I thought about my children and nephews growing, needing new shoes, needing hair cuts, growing up, changing.
I like progress. I like to watch things grow. It is the best show to watch.
shannon p. laws 