I’ve been seeing previews for a new kid’s movie that is due out soon. It’s about a boy who finds a secret book in the mysterious old house that his family moves into. He is warned not to open the book, for though it will enable him to see the wondrous, magical world that surrounds us all, but which is invisible to most humans, it will also foist on him an enormous burden of responsibility. Pretty far-fetched, huh? Well, yesterday I went for an early walk, while everything was shrouded in heavy fog. At first I saw just a few cottony webs tucked in the branches of some low, evergreen shrubs. Then I noticed that there were some extremely fragile ones floating on the tips of a few tall grass stalks. Finally I realized that it wasn’t just a few. There were hundreds, if not thousands - a veritable sea of delicate, waving flags - and when an occasional beam of light managed to penetrate the fog, they became tiny, glistening necklaces, spun of silk and diamonds.
This morning I went walking a bit later than usual, and unlike yesterday, it is a gorgeous, sunny day, with nary a cloud in the sky. Try as I might, I could not spot a single one of those webs. Were they all dismantled overnight? Were they so fragile that the wind wrenched them away from their flagpoles, and sent them drifting like tiny parachutes? Or was I, for some unknown reason, granted a once in a lifetime glimpse into a secret, magical world that surrounds us, but which most humans are never allowed to see?
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3 comments:
It takes a keen eye to recognize the beauty in the world that others might not see so obviously. True, a bright blue sky with occasional cloud cover on a perfect day on a perfect hill covered in perfect green grass is beautiful to most. But what of a rainy day? Or the dense fog? When people don't much want to be out and about, the rest of the animal kingdom begs to differ.
The world comes alive when we don't care to look. The rainy season taught me that. =)
As an aside and a matter of personal intrigue, I've found spiders, in particular, have a capacity to produce some truly breathtaking natural art. If we're to accept that it's natural, as in following instincts rather than actively choosing to create, I'm quite envious at the wonders they create entirely by coincidence.
Always keep your camera in your pocket when you go walking!
Hey Christopher, I didn't recognize who you were at first, til you mentioned "the rainy season". Then I knew it had to be someone from Indonesia! We had a fantastic spider in our garden in Katy. He was really big a scary looking, kind of orange with black legs and strange markings, but he made the most beautiful webs - they always looked like they had a perfect zipper going right down the middle! I'm finally learning to take my camera with me everywhere. Yesterday I ended up taking a picture of my lunch, it was so yummy. When the owner saw me, she came over and grabbed me, then dragged me back into the kitchen so I could take pictures of the lady making the tortillas. It was so cool!
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