There once was a spider who lived in a garden. There was nothing special about this spider, she was a fairly average sized garden spider, the kind with the large thorax for producing silk. The garden too was fairly generic being as it was medium in size and length. One feature of it that made it stand out was a small shed in the far corner. This shed was overgrown and damaged and it was on the side of this shed that our spider lived.
Our spider built webs. That was her task. Everyday she built a new web to catch her food now she could have built a big web however the bigger the web the harder it was to maintain. Plus large webs required a lot of silk and this was exhausting for the spider to produce. Even though she had considered that she could catch more flies if she made a bigger web but what would she do with more flies, it was not like she could have stored them very easily. Besides her normal web caught her enough flies to comfortably survive and took her enough time to maintain so this was the size she made.
This was the spider's life for quite sometime and never did she try to move, for other areas were the domain of different spiders. Of course she had to defend her territory that is true, but she never sought to take someone else's territory. Why should she? Her area fed her and kept her healthy enough also she never tried to spread out and make more than one web as again what would this serve her? More webs meant more time repairing and rebuilding. that all would cost her energy and as we have said she couldn't store food for too long. Besides storing food would make other spiders take more of an interest in her and she liked her lower profile.
It is also worth noting that she never minded rebuilding her web every morning. Yes it was a chore but it was part of her life, the thing that she did. She did not blame anyone or the weather for having to do this she just got on with her task and went about her life.
Eventually however, change came to the spider. For it is a true part of life that a status-quo never exists for too long without it being altered. In this case the owner of the garden decided to remove the shed our spider lived on. She sat for a while observing as the old shed was gradually cleared of the ruined gardening equipment which was kept within it. Of course the spider did not know what a petrol lawnmower was to start with so she definitely would not have recognized the rusted apparatus which was gradually inched through the small doorway to be thrown out. The spider did no try to scuttle away and hide. Instead she sat in the middle of her web and watched. Just as someone might lie on the ground to watch clouds float by in that slightly interested, unable to affect the outcome and curious as to what really might be going on kind of way.
Soon the gardener came to clear down the outside of the shed and remove the glass windows. The gardener was by and large a kind gardener and so all manner of insects and creatures were moved from the shed to the trees which lined the back of the garden. Our spider, and several of her neighbours, were among the invertebrate refuges who were re-homed in this way. This was an interesting experience for the spider as it was the first time in a long time that she had been moved from her home. It was strange to once again be on a tree rather than the windowsill of a shed and it was unusual to have to build a web around the branches of a tree instead of across a sheet of glass.
But these were mere musings of the spider. She did not try to return to the shed, which would have been folly as it was quickly being dismantled and she did not shake one of her legs at the gardener who had moved her for disrupting her life, after all she was still alive and able to hunt and eat. She certainly did not consider the power of the giant gardener who had moved her, in fact by all rights it would have been understandable had the spider considered the person some form of benevolent spider god. A being with the power to move her and make her feel insignificant. A being who had bestowed life upon her rather than death which they, in her mind at least, could easily have dealt. This being which was more powerful, mysterious and alien to look at was out of the comprehension league of our small spider as many things are to us simple humans. There were questions that could have been asked of course. Questions like what did the being want with the shed? Why were they suddenly so interested in this area? Why had they saved her? Did the spider someone fit a larger purpose in life? Was this area of the garden more in tune with the spider and the spider god being had decided it was to be hers and hers alone? Were other spiders 'selected' to be saved as she was? Or should she spread the word about the giant all powerful spider gods?
But these were not the questions of our small garden spider.
Instead she built herself a web.
She settled into the middle of the web.
And she waited to catch her prey.
Content with her life.
Because she was, after all just a humble spider in a garden.
