Thursday, October 18, 2007

The Shimmery Thread


Photo by Anna Pieka Valentine









The shimmery thread appears before my eyes like it has conjured itself from thin air. The silky strand stretches from the corner of my laptop, at a 35-degree diagonal, upward and to the right. My eye can only follow the thread a short distance. Then it seems to dissolve into nothing.

I climb on my chair and follow the silvery line higher, but I cannot trace it to the ceiling. The line is taught; there is no slack. I must trust that the connection to the ceiling is intact, tho I cannot see it. There is no sign of the spinner. She is invisible, too.

I try not to move my laptop all day. I want the thread to remain intact. I want it to remind me of the many paradoxes in my life.

That I am strong and delicate at the same time.

That I cannot always see where I'm going or where I've come from, but there is a direction.

That magical, whimsical things can attach themselves to the mundane in my life.

That I may have to adjust my perspective to see them, and even then, I may not see the complete picture.

That the spinner shows herself in all of nature. That I-We have been given both the gift and responsibility to enjoy her and to protect her.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful Steph - philosopical and inspirational. Love your blog/posts! In addition to your thoughts, the shimmery thread reminds me that if broken or torn down, with a little hard work, determination and perseverance it will once again be whole and functional. Amazing indeed.

crescent said...

your lovely post reminded me of an experience a few years ago. there was a small spider web in a corner of our living room. i saw something struggling in it. i thought it was a little worm, but upon closer examination i realized it was a tiny baby snake caught by its tail. i didn't even know a spider could snare a snake. my sweetie liberated the baby snake and set it loose in the yard. every year after that when we'd see a larger version of the same kind of snake.. the kind with the little yellow rings around their necks... we'd peer down and ask it if it was the same little snake grown up. we like to think it's out there keeping an eye on us.

Barbara

Allison said...

Beautiful, Steph!

Betty said...

Steph, I had a spider web in my bathroom window. I left it there and told everyone it was my new curtain. I liked to watch the progress on the web. I thought I was the only weird person that did things like that. LOL I never saw the philosophical side of my spider web. How wonderful that you could see it that way.

Jessica Moreau Berry said...

lovely post Steph!

Anna said...

Hooray! I'm so glad that you posted this beautiful piece~