My power animal

 

 

As a child I had an intense fear of spiders. I recall being petrified at the age of four by the hugest spider I had ever seen, hunkering down in a corner of the room. I hated them for many years and then came to the realization (not sure when...maybe as a young adult) that they are pretty damn amazing creatures.

 In Austin, Texas we share our spaces with the king of spiders, the tarantula. I find them quite comforting as they take care of the other pests. I was once in awe, seeing one as big as my fist on the side of our house and then the next morning, finding one next to my dish soap dispenser at the kitchen sink. I laughed, thinking my husband put a toy spider there as a joke. So I touched it but it jumped! So did I!

A few years later, I was bit by a Brown Recluse spider and had to have an operation to remove the rapidly dying tissue on my finger. On Sunday, out on Kate's ranch for an animal communication workshop, I got bit by some other spider which caused a welt on my leg. It's still tender.

I guess I'm a spider magnet...a spider woman...I like the idea of the Spider Woman of Native American myth being a creator of worlds: as a writer, an artist, a mom, a creative woman, I find power in the spider's essence.