Tuesday, April 04, 2006
A Moment with Jumpy Joe
Tonight as I was sitting on the sofa working on some school stuff, I noticed a movement on the hem of my t-shirt. Normally, those movements that I see out of the corner of my eye mean only one thing, a spider, and can send me into a spasmodic dance of terror, where various and sundry household items find themselves upturned on the floor. However, this time, even though it was a spider, I did not do the "hootchie-coo", as I previously thought, but instead froze for a moment while my heart temporarily stopped, and I did something I have rarely ever done with a spider in my life before. I relaxed. It was Jumpy Joe come a-callin', and it was as if he were sending me the telepathic message that he would not bite me if I just let him pass. So, I watched him hop gleefully across my lap, onto the book I was working on, back onto my lap, and then onto the sofa. I am sure he must have bounced his way up my leg as I had rested my foot on the coffee table. (You may recall that I had mentioned in a previous post that he lives in an "undertable crevice" somewhere on the other side of the coffee table.) I had finally been too absorbed in my work to notice that he'd come to visit me, and this time he took advantage of the situation not only to get my attention, but also to make physical contact. I admire him for that. Most spiders are just as afraid of us as we are of them. Not JJ! He is as sociable a spider as I've ever met.
I'm also quite proud of myself. I have learned with Jumpy to relax and to understand that neither of us wishes to harm the other. From this day forward, I will not be afraid of Jumpy Joe on my coffee table again, and even though I won't touch "other" spiders, (I'm a one spider woman now), I may even let him crawl up into my lap and read my book again.
I'm also quite proud of myself. I have learned with Jumpy to relax and to understand that neither of us wishes to harm the other. From this day forward, I will not be afraid of Jumpy Joe on my coffee table again, and even though I won't touch "other" spiders, (I'm a one spider woman now), I may even let him crawl up into my lap and read my book again.
