Ganeida's Knots

“I shall be honored to go down to posterity in the turn-up of Wilfred’s trouser”~ Lord Peter Wimsey.

For a while our front door was guarded by a large Golden Orb  spider.  Every morning I would find the strong silken wire strands spanning the arc between the eves & the palm tree & glowing deep gold in the morning light.  These spiders spin webs that are elastic enough & strong enough that Dunk Island fishermen have used them for catching bait fish.  True.

I haven't thought of my golden spider for a long time.  One morning I got up & she was gone.  No golden web glowed against the sky.  No spider scuttled anxiously along her golden threads.  The space between my eves & the palm tree was empty.

I thought of her this morning.  When I got up & opened my e~mail, as I invariably do first thing, my thick green mug to hand, coffee au lait pipping hot, sleep fogged brain humming like a computer booting up, the little sense of anticipation that this morning one of my blogging sisters [or 2 or 3] might have left a message for me making me smile inside while I waited I found that indeed there were a nice little pile of messages waiting for me.  I do like to get up & find love in my e~mail box!

This morning there was a special message.  A dear blogging sister had left a message asking if I had some way to chat.  There was something she wished to share but in person so I snuck into Liddy's room & borrowed her computer because Liddy's lap~top has Skype & I don't.  It was far too early to wake Liddy so all on my little lonesome ownsome I battled her computer to get Skype up & running & add a new address ~ & we had a short but very lovely chat & I got to thinking about the Golden Orb spider spinning her web.

See, I have heard people speak disparagingly of on~line friendships as not being the real deal.  I don't think that is true.  I especially don't think that is true for Christians.  Each of us spins her web, throwing our silken, golden strands out into the wider world, snagging stray passerbys.  Some, of course, don't stay but others do, forming a net of friendships that of necessity are strong but elastic, sustained more often than not by prayer because prayer is often the only thing we can do for each other.  Often we know each other better than we know our neighbours.  We bare our souls here in ways we may not be brave enough to do in real life.  Thoughts, the inner core of a person, shine forth.  Muscle & sinew peels away to reveal the glittering white bone of the self, the innermost desires of the heart, the deepest secrets.  I know this is true.

My friend, Siano, who has known me through university & as a new mother, & as the mother of teens, seen the best & the worst of me yet still reads my blog.  She says she learnt more about me in 6 months of reading than she'd learnt in 20 odd years.  Scary, isn't it?

So to the friend who shared this morning, & to the blogging sister who has honoured & blessed me " in the turn up of Wilfred's trouser", I thank you.  It is a deep joy to share the journey with you.