I’ve evolved. That’s right, I’ve achieved a higher level of consciousness. It was bound to happen sooner or later with the yoga, meditation and what-not, or so I’ve been told. Here’s how I know…
It was raining hard when I awoke this morning. The view through my gauzy mosquito netting always puts me in a delicious frame of mind and I like to linger, listening to nature come alive and feeling the gratitude of another day.
After a leisurely stretch I pushed the net aside and got up. In a fog I opened the bathroom door and turned on the light. There was a spider the size of a baseball sitting between me and the toilet which just happened to be my destination. In the past my heart-rate would have escalated with an adrenalin surge. But today KILL was not my first response. I was calm, although I don’t like spiders, and I knew I had to get him to move before I could do my business. So I grabbed one of those long grass Bali brooms that serve a multitude of purposes and nudged him. He skittered under the toilet bowl brush cup. That was too close for comfort. I carefully removed the brush. No spidey. He must be hiding under the cup. Still unruffled I slowly lifted the edge with the tip of the broom. He darted out directly toward me. I think I squeeked, but with the broom between us I was able to herd him in the right direction, up the wall, over the top, and back outdoors from whence he came.
As he exited, I took note that he was the very same color as the blackish lava rock walls in the bathroom. In the future I will glance a little more closely at those walls when I turn on the light, and I will ALWAYS turn on the light! As I replaced the broom in its corner I congratulated myself. I had not freaked out. I had not fiercely and brutally murdered an unsuspecting life form. In fact, I believe I felt a commonality, a oneness, and just possibly a measure of campassion for the defenseless creature. Later I told my neighbor, Sudi, about the incident. “Not poisonous,” he said. “Spiders in Bali okay…no poison.” Somehow sharing my space with a giant, six-legged arachnid, poisonous or not, isn’t acceptable. On my evolution chart, cohabitating with large, frightening insects is not a requirement.
writing for self-discovery 
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