Early in the growing season this year I was attempting to tackle the grasses and weeds that had taken over our garden beds. It was bad.
If you look hard enough, you can see our tiny squash plants attempting to overcome the mess.
This day was also the day that I learned that you can get a "grass cut." Similar to a paper cut, but from pulling out grass. But, that was the lesser trauma of the day.
I was attempting to at least free the area right around the roots/stems of our plants from the grasses. One particular handful of grass pulled out a clump of soil with it. I shook off some of the dirt and threw the grass aside. Thats when I noticed what I had uncovered. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of teeny tiny spiders frantically crawling around. First reaction: EEK! Followed rather quickly by fascination. They were crawling all over the egg sack. They were so tiny that they must have hatched recently. The scientist in me couldn't help but think it was pretty darn cool that I accidentally unearthed them right after they hatched. I cautiously, and from a fairly safe distance, leaned over to get a better look. And thats when it happened.
The entire mass of egg sack and baby spiders literally got up and walked away. Turns out the egg sack was attached to the back of a GIGANTIC momma wolf spider. I hadn't noticed her at all as she blended in with the soil so well. She didn't move very far, but she was fast. And did I mention that she was HUGE. Holy freaking crap.
The picture is poor quality and really doesn't show the scale of the monstrosity, but here it is anyway.
I dare you to click on it!
OK, so why am I telling this story? First of all, it's a good story. But the main reason I'm sharing is what has happened over weeks since then:
- I have encountered numerous smallish spiders in my gardens. Lots of them. Various types.
- While staying in dorm-like accommodations, I entered my room, turned on the light, and caught a rather large centipede running away. It went under the bed.
- In the same dorm-like accommodations, I encountered a really large centipede in the kitchen sink.
- There have been a couple medium sized spiders and even one really large maybe-spider. It might have been a cricket, but I'm pretty sure it was a spider.
Any of those encounters would have previously freaked me out pretty badly. I'm not the sort to jump up on a chair and squeal or anything, but I would have backed away and struggled to finish my weeding. I certainly would have been pretty concerned about getting into a bed that a largish centipede may or may not be hiding under.
But, I didn't freak out. In all these cases I had some initial shock and dismay, followed by calm. In most cases I actually said aloud something like "oh, hi Spidey." Sure, I probably jumped a bit and backed away. But, then once Spidey moved away I went back to what I was doing. I calmly got into bed, not at all freaked about a centipede attacking me in my sleep. And every time this has happened, I thought back to that moment when giant momma wolf spider first moved. I survived that moment, and this one is nothing in comparison.
I've come to the conclusion that confronting your fears is definitely a good way to overcome them. However, it may be that having your fears confront you, especially unexpectedly, might work even better.
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