Eye-catching Friend in Nature (Entry 2)

 As I was going along a hiking trail around Lake Worth, I saw a small creature cross quickly in front of my feet. I could tell that it was a bug of some type rather than an animal, but as I looked closely into the grass to find it, I realized that I was face to face with a beautiful, red spider. I coaxed it out of the grass by placing a stick to block its path and force it onto the gravel that comprises the trail, and I was lucky enough to catch a picture of it while it froze shortly before scurrying away once again. 

Being a bit wary of spiders in general, I moved over to a nearby (but far enough away) bench area and began to sit and think about the spider and the life that it may lead in the forest. When I enter into this trail area and get a glimpse of the lake, I often feel overwhelmed at the scale and complexity of the nature that surrounds me. For a creature as small as this spider, I could not help but to think that such feelings not only exist but exist on a much grander scale. At that thought, I felt guilty for interfering in its daily routine in order to snap a photo. In an environment that is filled with so many mortal dangers for creatures who are outsized by many entities by several orders of magnitude, this spider was likely in fear of its life which caused it to sit still for the camera. It had survived so many potentially deadly situations in the wild, and I was not helping it by making it fearful of going through another such ordeal at my hands. 

Of course, all of this worry on my end assumes that spiders are capable of thoughts and fears, but this does align with my hopeful belief that all life on earth is somehow more intelligent than humans can comprehend. Surely, I would not want a larger being to assume that I had no mental faculties purely because I was much smaller than it and did not act in a similar fashion. 

I felt guilty for the manner in which I forced the spider onto the trail to view, but that only temporarily lessened my appreciation for the beauty of the spider. It is difficult to discern in the picture above, but the spider was covered with a thin peach-fuzz like layer over its body and legs reminiscent to that of a tarantula while also much thinner and shorter. Its legs were perfectly even in terms of color patterns and angled in a manner that accentuated the massive rear portion of its body. The waves that appear on this large, bulbous section of the spider flow softly, but I found them to still be menacing for some reason. I dared not try to get close enough to look at its eyes, but overall, I felt that the spider was beautiful in every manner yet also somewhat threatening given its coloration, size, and general presence. 

This spider was, for me, just one perfect example of the many types of appeal that can be found in nature, and it helped me realize that nature is sometimes inherently daunting, whether it be due to its size or its potential for harm.  Still, when we remove our fears and feelings of discomfort regarding nature, we are much better able to take in the enormous amount of beauty that exists all throughout our natural world and right before our eyes at all times.