For Pete’s sake

It’s the little things in life…..

I have a very, very tiny spider that has made a home somewhere on or in my work computer. It comes out during the day to keep me company while I am on my computer. It is the tiniest of spiders.  I have looked on the web but can’t find the species; here is the closest I found to what it looks like:

I have named him Pete.

Pete does not know I am writing about him, I wonder what he would think if he knew I was about to share our story online? Would he lawyer-up?  Or would he appreciate the attention, I don’t think he will ever know, or will he?  

It was such an exciting discovery for me (and maybe him too) one of those discoveries that takes you away from the pressing stressful moments in work life and makes you pause and think.

 I found Pete in the middle of one of my frantic work days last week.....

....I was stressing over a report I was working on, the phone was ringing and the boss wanted results yesterday. In the middle of all of this, I see what I thought was a speck on my computer. Touching it with my index finger, this speck grew legs and moved in a spidery way. OH, I say to myself, it’s a darn spider on my computer…not thinking much of it, I carry on with my stressful day, thinking about that spider on the way home. 

The next day I notice Pete strolling across the top of my computer monitor, I get to thinking that it must be like……….

…… walking across a tall skyscraper for this little guy, what a brave sole. what was he thinking? does he think? is he wondering what the heck I am doing pounding away on my keyboard (his home) like a madman. What does this little guy eat? my crumbs from lunch when I eat at my desk? Are there little microbes on my computer screen that keep him happy and fed? Does he leave the computer and go to my desk or chair? That must be like going.....

 .....to the moon for him. Then I thought that if he indeed did go to my chair, will I one day sit on him not knowing and change the balance of things to come somehow?

What a marvelous creature, my arrow cursor is bigger than him, one day he was on the flat screen as I was typing, every now and then I would wiggle the cursor over him (actually, under him) to see if I could make him jump or something.

- no reaction, or was he just mesmerized by the blurring electrons?

I take for granted the 45 seconds it takes me to walk to the bathroom; he will never see the bathroom. His world for now is my computer screen and that seems to be enough for him, for now.

The next day at work, Pete was making his long march across the top of my monitor and for a moment, he stopped and turned at looked straight at me and I at him.

It was a bit of a stare down, sort of a confrontation - man vs. tiny spider. We held the stare down for awhile, I think he blinked his fourth eye...somehow, without saying a word, this stare down was also an affirmation of our existence, in the same place and time. He a tiny spider, me a little larger human. 

Somehow these past few stressful work days seemed to have calmed a bit since meeting Pete. 

I wondered a lot about the things in this tiny spiders little tiny world. How did he end up here in room 1356 on the third floor of a 3 building campus? Did he take the elevator up? Does he have a family? Is family in my computer?  Does he get stressed out during the day when I do? Obviously he is staying and it’s not just a passing acquaintance.      

Was he sent down  from above by a higher authority to get me out of my stressful world and into one that  focused  more on the “little” things in life?

If he could talk, what would he say to me? “Hey man, chill out!” or while sitting on my monitor watching me type would he say something like, “Hey! you spelled asparagus  wrong - dimwit!” 

A Robert Burns Poem; does speak to me in this instance....a couple of passages from the poem here:

I'm truly sorry Man's dominion 
Has broken Nature's social union, 
An' justifies that ill opinion, 
Which makes thee startle, 
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion, 
An' fellow-mortal!

Still, thou art blest, compar'd wi' me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But Och! I backward  cast my e'e,
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!

I look for Pete each morning now to see if he has survived the wild world of my office at night, for all I know it could be like.........

.....the Amazon  for him in here at night.

I truly believe Pete is a gift , whether by happenstance or a great divine intervention, Pete got me thinking about life and all its wonders and how every now and then we just have to pause and appreciate the things that we have all around us in life. The little things.  I don’t know how long Pete has been here but I want to thank him for grounding me, for taking me out of myself and bringing me back to the basics. The tiniest of things matter. How many tiny things am I missing?

 If this little fellow had a theme song ………….Tiny Dancer...