Spider webs

Between the lightning storms and downpours we sometimes wake up to heavy fog in the mornings. Yesterday morning I took off on my walk with Choco (Tetsu slept in again) and grabbed my camera on the way out.

As I walked I was thinking how Tetsu should be walking with me regardless of the weather. I wasn't in a particularly good mood. Just as I got past the first trees in the forest, I noticed a spider web between the tree trunks. With all the drops of fog on it it was just beautiful. I snapped a picture of it but it didn't photograph very well. The camera focuses on the trees behind the web not even registering that the web is there. As I walked along I kept my eyes open for other spider webs that might photograph better and I was surprised at how many spiders had been busy during the night! Suddenly it seemed my world had turned into a web making workshop! Webs in the branches, webs over the bushes, webs in the telephone wires, webs between the rice stems in the field. How is it that I've missed all these before?

One reason is is because the dew drops outlined each of the threads in the web and made them sparkle this day. Another reason is because some of the webs, sparkly or not, can't be seen well against a light background, they need a dark forest behind them. Another reason is that unless I'm looking for them, some are too high up, some are too small, some I need to turn around and look at from a different viewpoint.

By the end of my 40 minute walk, I was in a very good mood and felt like I had been on God's own little treasure hunt looking for spider webs to photograph! I think I took over 50 pictures of webs, some beautiful, some ruined, a few with spiders still in them.

It made me think of the treasures all around us that we pass by without noticing even though they are there. Our hearts' lenses tends to focus on the bleakness behind the blessings. Maybe a Special nudge makes them more recognizable on a given day, maybe we need to turn around and look from a different viewpoint. Some blessings we only realize when the darkness is behind them lighting up the fragile threads of friendship or circumstance or knowledge.

“All thy threads with magic art

Have wound themselves about this heart." William Cowper

I hope I've learned to appreciate the spider webs that I usually find annoying but more than that I hope I've learned to search out God's blessings in my life and be thankful for the dark backgrounds or the teardrops that make them stand out all the more clearly.