Arachnophobe, calm down

I’m walking through the woods and there it is… that strand of silk that catches across the nose, wraps around the cheeks, and dangles down one bare arm. I lean over, freeze, head down, and watch a quarter-inch spider lower herself to the ground, swift and gentle, and scurry away under cover. She doesn’t crawl over my neck to get in my hair, she doesn’t sink her tiny fangs into my hand. She would prefer, I take it, to have nothing to do with me. She’ll be right back tomorrow, same place. I feel kind of bad that she has to start over every day. Her anchor line appears to span eight feet or more across this old logging road; somewhere along the way is her stereotypical Halloween-y spider web, woven round and around the spoke-like anchor lines like a lace doily. She probably rebuilds that after I walk through as well. Bless her heart. ~K