Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

A lesson from the black widow...

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We want rain and when it does we cannot contain ourselves. It is probably what reminds us of our connection


with nature. So often we are occupied with scheduling our lives, we fail to remember we are part of nature. So when a bolt of thunder storm creates the sound waves and when the lightening lights up the sky something wakes up in us. Only to lose ourselves by the time the next conversation comes up.


We have so much of noise around us that we are trying to keep in tune with it forgetting all along the hum of the universe.


Then the thunder comes along and we are jerked again to that reality where we actually feel at home


so much that we are creative when we are in that zone.


So there I was heading to the university to meet entomologists to learn more about a specific species that I am fond of. Reaching the destination, I found myself enter a world where I usually run from.


Insects can be amazing and the expert I was meeting Ali al Raisi decided to introduce me to a subject if I were to see on any other occasion I would be standing on the chair. Well even that would not help because here it was — the Black Widow. Not just one


but at least three.


Spiders are scary no matter what variety or species. Arachnophobia is a phobia that has been around the world for almost forever.


What could be the reason? Could it be the eight legs that makes it move really fast. I have often wondered why a spider needs eight legs. Does it help in weaving the web?


Now going back to why we are so scared of a spider — is it their hairy legs? Or is it the fact that it might bite? We have heard that the black widow kills its mate so it must be really venomous. Not quite so, says Ali.


And here was Ali al Raisi who collects species for research telling me that he can leave the black widow (very much alive) on his arm and it will not harm him. I did not want proof, I told him looking around I realised there is no platform I could jump onto because the huge table was full of samples alive in containers and others dead kept in test tubes for further studies, after all it is a lab. That is when he showed me the well fed little spiderlings, in a jar with well circulated air and light.


There could be 300 of them in one egg sack. But they are so tiny and vulnerable, but can we forget they are black widows?


Why would one be scared of baby spiders? Because they hold the potential of everything we associate with grown up spider.


Ali went on to explain black widows never attack. They it seems actually build their web and just wait for their food. But if we mess with them they might just bite, and if it does bite — use vinegar.


A great bit of philosophy


don’t you think?


Everyone holds the potential but may never use until provoked. It could be circumstances or situations purposefully caused by others. It can be positive or negative.


On the positive aspect sometimes we are so much into our comfort zone that we never really tap our true potential. That is until we are thrown in deep. That is when you are faced with a choice — do you want to try to survive or even better — come out and excel. This is where emotion is powerful I suppose. With emotion attached to the intention it becomes all powerful and a defeat is not an option.


And when you are done even you do not meet all the expectations, you still know deep inside you that you took the step forward. There is dignity in it and self respect. Most importantly you know you tried.


Life is a gift and it is not for someone else to mess about. We have a choice to be ordinary or to be extraordinary. Oman’s much loved self-development coach and scholar Shaikh Khalfan al Asry always said — ‘Be extraordinary.’


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