Sometimes, when I’m out walking or running in the woods, I am struck by the beauty of a spider’s web as it gleams between the trees.
Spider webs are usually almost invisible, but in the right conditions, with the right kind of moisture in the air and with the proper rays of illumination, spider webs can light up a forest like galaxies in space.
That’s exactly what these formations look like: like their own unique worlds. It can be really beautiful when hundreds of them hang like primeval holiday decorations in a forest, their intricate shapes exposed by morning mist and the sun’s first rays of light.
When I marvel at the beauty of spider webs, I often wonder about the spider who lives within, and how he or she must feel — existing entirely in a web of his or her own making, focused completely on that world, and utterly unaware of all of the drama unfolding around him or herself in the rest of the forest.
Yesterday, I stopped to watch a spider spin her web. I began to wonder if we’re not also a bit like her. What if each action we take, each thought or deed that emanates from us, creates a thread in the web of our own lives?
We may get completely wrapped up in this drama. We might not see it. But perhaps we’re all spinning small sections of a huge, interconnected Web of Life together — and we each live in the unique corner of this Web that we create for ourselves.
We go about our lives thinking that time moves forward in a linear direction. But what if our actions form the world around us? What if our thoughts, words, and deeds create the web in which we live, and so suddenly, there we are: stuck within invisible silken threads. These threads are the circumstances of our lives that are of our own making. We are living with the results of our actions.
You choose to smoke cigarettes? Over time, you’ll be stuck in a web of coughing and pulmonary distress. You want to travel and see the world? Off you go, but you won’t have the home and the mortgage that your peers do when you return.
You want that home and mortgage? Good and well. It won’t be as easy to travel. Are you eating a brownie as you read this? (I ate half of one just now). You and I may both regret these sweets later, but they’re choices we’re making that we will have to live with.
Even if you choose to take no action: that’s action. Eat the brownie and exercise, or eat the brownie and sit on the couch. You will live with the results of being a person who chose to act or not to act when life called you. Each has its own unique feeling, and you’ll get to know it each one, depending upon your choices.
As my mother always told me growing up: “Take what you want from life, say the Gods. Take what you want…but pay for it.”
So consider your actions, not just as karmic events that go out somewhere in life and may come back to you like a boomerang, but also as the very landscape and foundation upon which you live. These actions don’t go away toward a distant future like a boomerang does. They are the structure and web upon which your daily life is built.
Consider also that your actions create lasting implications for the entire Web of Life. You contribute to the support system and the beauty that upholds every other creature here, who is also spinning his or her portion of the web.
Ultimately, we all uphold the universe. Your actions, thoughts, and words add to collective consciousness and draw people and circumstances into your life who vibrate at the same level that you do.
Look all around you. You’ve spun this web of your life. And you are creating more threads every day with your thoughts, words, and deeds. In what sort of web would you like to live? That’s your choice to make, as the creator of your life, every day.
