In keeping with my slightly weirdo self, I never kill spiders. Intentionally, I should add. I am the catch-and-release type of person. Or I just live with them, where they hang out in the far corners of my house or on my ceiling.
Now, I don't live in Australia where they have spiders the size of Volkswagen Beetles, so you know, I might have a different attitude if I lived there.
But all spiders you ask? Even the scary ones? Yes, even the scary the ones. Like, for example, black widows. I've had two different madams living on my back patio this summer. I've escorted them away into the nearby bushes twice each now but they've both returned each time back to their same original spot. So now I just let them be. I mean, it's been so hot that I haven't been spending a lot of time out there anyway. But if for some miraculous reason we get a cool spell anytime soon I might move them again.
Yes, people think I'm crazy. You might too.
Here are my thoughts on why I do this. Have you ever shown up at the wrong place at the wrong time? Has someone ever yelled at you for making that mistake? No fun, right? So imagine being a spider and showing up somewhere where a human doesn't want you. The spider hasn't done anything wrong. It's just going about it's business and trying to catch some lunch. How could I possibly resent it for that? I just hope that if I ever show up at the wrong time and place and Godzilla is roaming about he'll give me the same courtesy and gently remove me to a different location and not smoosh me flat as a pancake. I may be a little perturbed at him for interrupting my attempts to fetch a meal or whatever it was I was doing at that moment, but it's preferable to being dead.
Yes, this goes against the common sense of most people I know.
I know.
But you know what else? Spiders are beneficial and eat a lot of the bugs that aren't. They also help keep the insect world in check. Insects already out number humans by a lot. A LOT! There are approximately 1.4 BILLION insects per human on this planet. Can you imagine a world without spiders eating up a great number of those? Shivers.
But you know what else? I am also of the opinion that humans are not at the top of the food chain and that every other single entity on this planet has been placed here to be at our beck and call.
Also not in synch with a lot of people I come across.
We humans are just one of the many beings that call Earth home. We can quite clearly see the disastrous results of how treating Earth and all her beings as resources to be commodified and exploited has gone. What a mess we've made of things.
I believe this planet is Sacred, that a whole lot of us humans (not all) have been missing out on a deeply profound relationship with the other beings living along side us. We've become so disconnected from the majesty, mystery, and beauty of this world. We have so much to learn and experience if only we would question this path we're on of the relentless destruction of our home in the name of greed, profit, productivity, and consumerism.
Be forewarned though, once you do? You will also then see the world through new eyes, and You will most likely be overwhelmed with sadness. The grief over the way we've been treating Earth will be immense. But we have to do this, we have to see how bad it's become, without sugar coating it. Without avoiding the most uncomfortable and difficult feelings. So we need to do this together, to grieve together, to hold each other as we see what we've been doing. To wake up, to accept responsibility, to make different choices - to do better.
On the other side of that though? Is celebration, connection, and awe. It is being present to something so much bigger than us, that something I think that so many are looking for but not finding in the addiction to buying and owning and numbing out.
Seek engagement with the world around you instead. Start building relationships with the beings that are not human. Understand this world from their perspective.
Let the spiders live.
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If you like to read, or listen to books while you do other things, here are three I recommend highly that can be your guides towards an awareness of a more Sacred way of being while being human. There are tons more out there, but this can get you started:
Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth, edited by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Thinking Like a Mountain, Joanna Macy with John Seed, Pat Fleming, and Arne Naess
I had a little conversation with a jumping spider at our new kitchen sink. I said hello and slowly put my fingers near them. They pivoted a little and then crawled under my finger. After a bit I got back to work… cute little fren.
Nancy you ever met a Brown Recluse Spider. It’s flesh eater. I killed two in my garage while cleaning I’ve witnessed what these spiders can do.
Scary!