Lessons learned from a pretty big spider 🕷️

This doesn’t have anything to do with voiceover (unless it does!!), but I feel the need to reflect on a little eight-legged friend.

Over the last few weeks, a spider (my iPhone says it’s a Barn Spider) would spin a large, beautiful web on our back deck. The central part of the web was usually between 2-3 feet and its connectors would sometimes span 15 feet. He was courteous enough to only block our steps down to our backyard once. Every night when we’d take our dogs out, we would admire the web and do our best with our camera settings to try and take a picture.

This is my best one and I appreciate that it’s shaped like a heart.

He was a persistent little guy. Every morning, his web would be gone and every night he would spin a new one. A couple times we saw he caught something. I’d like to think that he ate well every night - and rid us of a few annoying mosquitos.

I know it was instinct that kept him making a new web every night, but I can’t help but think of the effort required. And as much as I wanted every night to be a successful hunt, I am sure that many nights were fruitless.

…I’m sure there’s some kind of metaphor here…

He’s been gone the last couple nights. I already miss him and our nightly ritual. In honor of my arachnid friend, I’m going to strive to be more spider-like. As I progress through my new voice acting journey, I know there will be days that inevitably feel fruitless. And I will do my best to remember that there’s bound to be a nice, juicy bug somewhere, sometime that’ll satiate me. I just have to keep spinning my web, methodically and consistently.

So here’s to you, Barn Spider (I really should have asked you your name)! I hope you find your way back to our deck soon!