Enter the spiders.

At the desk - 6:04 am

Spiders. I'm no fan and, until we moved into this house, I never gave them a second thought.

But spiders are everywhere in this house. There's a jumping spider who lives on the front porch. There's a garden spider who puts in an appearance at my desk near the end of summer. I know there are a few brown recluse in the basement.

When we first moved here, I would kill the spiders with abandon. After all, they're spiders. One day, the spider at my desk came out. I got a piece of paper to kill it, and I know it sounds crazy, but it looked terrified. In that moment, I realized it wasn't my job to kill all the spiders of the world.

The spiders weren't really affecting my life in any way. I was killing them because killing is a part of my essential human nature. I didn't have to give in to my essential nature on this. I could just let them be.

I gave up killing spiders at will and made an agreement with them.  I'd leave them alone and let them do their spider business as long as they don't threaten me or Rose (our dog). They come after the dog, they're history. Period. Except for a few super scary black spiders in the basement, the spiders have respected our agreement. They live out their spring and summers in the house and disappear in the fall.

In order to mark the beginning of spider season, a tiny brown spider came spinning down a web from the light in our kitchen this morning. It dangled there for a few seconds until we noticed it. Once receiving attention, it scooted back up into the light.

Spider season has begun at our house.

Spring must be on the way.

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