Most of you are aware of the spider who has taken up residence in my bathroom. She had a roommate who I killed some time ago; but her ability to survive struck something inside of me and I just could not bring myself to do her in.
She spent the summer poking her head out occasionally and we seemed to be doing a fairly good job sharing the bathroom. We were both pretty respectful of the other's need for privacy. I used it for showering and applying my make-up and she used it for--well, living. Then she disappeared. She was gone for quite awhile and I honestly thought that maybe she had met my husband on an afternoon when I wasn't there to protect her. I was a little saddened that she was dead and that I was living with a serial spider killer. Should I turn him in? That would be a hard call--he does bring me coffee every morning--would the authorities take that into consideration?
Last weekend she appeared and I realized that she had not been murdered. She was alive and well, and frankly--bigger than sin. She was gigantic. Seriously, for a moment, I stood frozen and just stared at her. Finally, realizing that she had no intention of crawling back under the cabinet on her own, I started opening the bottom drawer (with the handle of a brush) and slamming it closed. I was so hopeful that she would run under the cabinet and hover in the darkness.
Well, maybe she was in the middle of remodeling and didn't want to be at home during the mess, (I mean, who does?) But, she wasn't going under the cabinet.
I grabbed my faithful blow dryer. I set the temperature to cool and blew it gently on her. Again, she seemed unfazed by my efforts to rouse her. Finally, my husband heard my activity and came to see what I was destroying.
He took one look and asked, "Do you want me to kill her?"
"No! You can't kill her! I wrote a blog about her!" I answered protectively.
After rolling his eyes at me and blowing some air into the sky, my amazing husband went to get a paper towel and very gently moved her from my bathroom cabinet to her new "condo" in the backyard.
While I was relieved, I was also a little sad for her. Change can be so hard. But, I reminded myself that sometimes it's time to go someplace new and try something different. She could have had a great life living in my bathroom and she can still have a great life living in the hydrangea bush under my bedroom window.
My friends, Larry and Jessie, who are living in Hawaii, once explained to me that the roads we travel sometimes lead us to a T and sometimes they lead to a Y. Sometimes there is only one right choice, sometimes there are two right choices.
For me, I may be moving away from the field of healthcare and into the world of...beauty. Is one more right than the other? No. It's just a matter of being who God is calling me to be no matter what I am doing. It doesn't matter if I am giving shots to small children or helping women feel beautiful--it's all for God's glory.
I would like to find my little spider someday and see if she is interested in hosting a Mary Kay party, but then again, who would she invite? Would Mrs. Bumble Bee want to try the Mineral Powder Foundation? Would the baby lizards want a Collagen Boost? What shade of lipstick would my friend, Miss Spider, request?
Maybe it's better to let her discover the beauty in her new world while I let God reveal the beauty in mine.
