Lucy wasn’t in her web this morning, we couldn’t find her for a while mainly because we were looking up. Then I spotted her in amongst the dead leaves in a plant pot under her web. I had wondered a little about her the other day when she moved from her permanent position in the centre of her web to climb into the rafters. If a spider could look tired and worn out this one did, like she and lived her fill and now had one last job to do. I read Charlotte’s web as a child so I know what was coming once she made the slow climb up and disappear inside a crevasse for a while, I just hoped the kids wouldn’t feel quite as bad as Wilbur when the spider said good bye.
It was all rather morbid really, whenever the kids curiosity or mine got the better of us we popped out to say hi and see how she was going. Eli said once “I think maybe she’ll climb back up now” but I said “No.”
Then when we checked on her after lunch she was still, her spark had left and she was gone. Literally within seconds the ants appeared clambering all over her body, taking positions in small groups around the base of each leg. Lani wanted them to leave her alone, and for a moment I was there with her. Visions of me chasing the nasty ants away from our friend and us giving her a proper spider burial filled my head. Instead I just talked quietly to the kids about the raw and harsh reality of world we live in. And after we said good bye we left the ants to their meal preferring not to starve another creature because of our sentimentality.
We chose instead to marvel over the craftsmanship Lucy showed in her web…
…and remember her hanging about in there keeping us company.
Good bye Lucy the Golden Orb Spider who spun us such an amazing golden web.
I’m thinking maybe its not such a good Idea to name all the creatures we observe for nature studies, what do you think???
Just as the sun was setting the kids called me out to look at Lucy’s web and there in the middle was this little guy not much bigger than a fly we choose to believe its Lucy’s.
Oh, I think it’s okay to name them. The cycle of life is very important for children to be allowed to see. And, sometimes it’s made all the more real to them by naming.
Goodbye, Lucy.
Very true and I suppose we should get over our need to shelter our kids from lessons of that sort.