I ran into this guy while out on an evening walk. With his web strung from tree to tree, he was suspended in midair just above the sidewalk. Unfortunately, I wasn’t about to get a great photo of him.
The following morning, I went out walking again. My chiropractor has instructed me to walk for three times each day for a minimum of 15 minutes each walk. On this, Day 2 of the routine, the first 10 minutes are filled with tightness and rather uncomfortable. Chasing Mr. Spider provides me with a nice distraction from the pain.
But he was AWOL (absent without leave) this morning. So I had to find other ways of occupying my mind. Deep breathing, as would be my normal yogic way, is currently not my distraction of choice as slow deep breaths deliver long bouts of painful tugging across my sacroiliac joint. Therefore, I look around for other things to occupy my mind and come back to assess my body periodically to notice if there have been any developments (good or bad).
This morning, the air is brisk. The leaves on the trees are showing red, green, and yellow — and many have fallen to the ground already. The walkers are out but not as plentiful as I remember. Most are of the older, retired crowd. They walk with purposeful intention making it clear that this is their morning meditative movement, like running and yoga have been for me. One lady’s steps are almost run-like but her dog weighs her down like a ball and chain. I wave and greet her and the others as I waddle my way along.
In the final stretch, I see a house all decked out for Halloween. There are pumpkins, witches, and bats decorating the front of the house. The steps and mail box are covered with artificial spider webs. I smile wide and remember a time, longer ago than I care to acknowledge, where YaYa and his two friends ran from one of the house they’d trick-or-treated at screaming at how cool it was that the home owners had “REAL SPIDERWEBS!” at their house. I bet they would have LOVED to have seen Mr. Spider even more than me.
It’s been 30 minutes now, and I am no longer in pain. I guess I’ll got to work now.