I took a walk in the woods over an unkempt path. I carelessly crashed through a spider’s web. YIKES! I brushed that spider off in a flash. Cobwebs clung to my face, hands, and hair. YUCK!
I kept walking. I kept brushing myself off. It’s hard to brush yourself off, as the Buddha surmised. And it’s hard to brush off the guilt from carelessly destroying creation.
I went back to apologize and saw the spider already at work, mending creation.
Photograph by Paula Tremba © 2019 (click on image to see larger view)
Thanks, this kind of action seems to happen often.
Indeed. It’s happened to me often. But this is the first time I ever thought of “apologizing.” Moral evolution takes time.
Randy, if you haven’t yet, read (or preferably listen to Robbin Wall Kimmerer’s “Braiding Sweetgrass” and “Gathering Moss”. She is a gifted being.
Not only do they quickly repair the damage but they also recycle by eating the strands of the old, damaged web. No biggie for a spider! I guess there’s a lesson in that but I can’t quite figure out how to articulate it!