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Six-Figure Income School - You Can Triumph From Adversity

By Maria Rattray

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 18Nov2009 Word count: 887 Viewed: 238 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Today I cut some roses from my garden and brought them inside to put in vases. As I was trimming the leaves from the stems, I noticed a little spider in the sink. Clearly I had disturbed whatever it had been doing in the garden.

Now I am not particularly concerned about spiders if I know they are not harmful. I also believe that we need to learn to accept the odd little creature into our homes, partly because in most cases, they eventually find their way back out into the natural environment, but also because they have as much right as we do to live wherever they choose! They are an essential part of our universe and I suspect that many of us, in not recognizing this, reach all-too-quickly for the spray can whenever we see one perceivably encroaching on ?our territory?.

This one looked very much like a garden orb-weaver, which I understand is not venomous. I decided that I would leave it in the sink, hoping that it would find its way somehow, back out into the garden.

As I cut the roses it was clear to me that the spider was observing my movements. Whenever I moved my hands, the spider moved to the other side of the sink. If I stopped to observe it, the spider stopped too, waiting, watching! We were a match for each other!

Eventually, and against any action that I would normally take, I decided to flush it down the drain. The reaction of the spider was instantaneous. It scarpered up the side of the sink to where it felt safe, and waited. I tried to ease it down, but it sensed my action and once again, moved away quickly.

I ran the water more fiercely and was amazed to observe how tenaciously, in the face of adversity, the spider clung to one little rose stem that lay at the bottom of the sink. As the water swirled around it, the spider moved with amazing alacrity, to the upper side of a leaf.

That's when I decided the creature deserved better. It had gathered all its reserves to stay alive. My killing it would have been a dreadful example of bullying, perhaps even cruelty.

And so, I took the stem into my garden, and there I set the creature free. All the while I am certain it was checking me out, but at the end of the exercise I am confident it breathed a sigh of relief, and I felt exonerated, by my decision to be kinder.

This made me stop, think, and consider the human condition in relation to the spider's experience. You see when life is easy and without challenge, when things are running smoothly, we have the energy and the audacity to complain. And we do it so well! However, when life throws us a huge challenge, we don't have time for recrimination, we don't have the energy to waste on complaining, and there is no room for anger. The fact is that we are too busy trying to stay afloat, looking for ways to survive, using every bit of energy we can muster, and more, to do so!

We can learn lots from nature if we take the time to observe. In times of drought, plants learn to drop their leaves and conserve all their energies for survival. Dead-looking grass is in fact alive and well underground.

Insects thrive in drought because of their amazing ability to adapt, surviving on both natural and artificial food such as paint, paper, cotton, glue and other insects. Their exoskeleton covers their body and is resistant to chemicals.

My spider survived because of its determination and vigilance, and perhaps a belief that it could outwit me. It deserved to win the survival game.

Humans differ in response to adversity. Some have a tendency to cave in and accept defeat. In doing so, they demonstrate their belief that the problem is bigger than they can deal with.

But think, about someone such as Viktor Frankl who survived the Nazi concentration camp to become one of the most prominent psychologists of the 20th century. In his book entitled, 'Man's Search for Meaning', Frankl talks about the pivotal moment when some men learned to be helpless, learned to lose control. It was at a camp when a guard warned the men that they would never, ever leave. Those who embraced the belief died soon afterwards whilst those who rejected the dire warning and remained hopeful and strong, survived.

Michael Milton who lost his leg to cancer when he was nine years old, determined that he would one day ski again. He went on to become one of Australia's best-known athletes and the fastest skier ever! Recently he walked the Kokoda track, where he really explored his mental toughness, experienced the physical and mental journey and learned much about himself and those around him.

If you are at a point in your life where you are wondering how you might survive, perhaps you might think about what reserves you can muster in order to survive. What talents do you have?

Reflect on the spider. It is not privy to re-training, internet help, or the likes. But, at the end of the day, it fought to survive and triumphed. So too, can you!

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