THE SPIDER

Today's post is part of the

by Kathy Cannon Wiechman

One day last summer when I walked out to my front porch to water my flowers, I walked through a spider web—a sticky, cling-to-my-face spider web. I knocked down the entire web.

The next day, it was back. This time the sun caught on its threads and I saw it before I walked into it. Again, I knocked it down.

Day after day, it happened again. And day after day, I knocked it down. I knew to get rid of it once and for all, I had to catch the culprit. Yes, I know that spiders kill harmful insects. And yes, I read CHARLOTTE’S WEB. But this was no Charlotte, and I was getting annoyed.

I wound the web around a stick, spider and all, and relocated it away from my yard.

I no longer walk through a spider web to water my flowers (which have finished out their season now). I don’t know if the spider spins its webs in my neighbor’s yard. But that spider was a lesson in persistence for me. It kept spinning webs even though it had to spin a new one every day. It never gave up.

As a writer, I have to persist as well. After each rejection, I have to go over my work, fix what can be fixed and try again. Sometimes I have to start all over from the beginning. But I’m a writer. I keep spinning those stories and shaping those words. I’ll never give up.