Looking for that perfect perspective...

The perspective that laughs at my fear responses.



I have a black widow spider who uses my bedroom window screen as if it were her web. I watched her take 2 prey, both were small house flies. She has a pretty good thing going. The screen doesn't fit so well in the window opening so she comes and goes through that.

I watched her come in but haven't actually seen her leave. I kept looking up at her as I was organising my bills and she stayed in one spot for several minutes but the next time I looked up she just wasn't there anymore. I was apprehensive but a voice in my head said, Loving all creatures here below so I decided the black widow was definately providing me a service and she was beautiful in red on black. I just hoped her progeny did not flourish close by. Purely selfish reason of not wanting to be bitten by a black widow, or anyone else who's in my house either.

But I'm sure she doesn't have any interest in me. She probably can't get a full view of so much larger a being. Or does she? How big would a creature have to be, to be as much larger than I am to the black widow? Hundreds? Thousands? Size of a large whale?

I wonder if even the spider experts can tell how much of the world she sees. That would be a lovely gift: to see as others see, especially if the 'others' were so very, very different from ourselves.

*

Oh great - it's 11PM and a pack of coyotes are yipping outside in the wild land on the other side of the chain link fence that separates our backyard from the mining property. How close they sound. We more often get javelina browsing our yard at night and in the early mornings we see a deer family sometimes too. The neighborhood dogs bark at the javelina but not the deer or coyotes. I wonder why?

When the coyotes were yipping, my Chichuahua, Petey, came out from under the covers pretty quick but he didn't make a sound. He just stared out toward the noise. After the hulabaloo, the neighbor's dog, Chula, barked lazily a few times but soon gave it up.

I wonder if the coyotes caught one of the feral cats we have around here? There certainly aren't any rabbits. I haven't seen a bunny around our property in the 5 years I've lived in this house.