Cultivating Inner Peace

Meet Bell. No, she’s not my pet, and no, she’s not in any adorable children’s books, but she IS one of the first spiders to catch my attention for something more than a shriek of terror and a mad search for a shoe. She is the amazing Diving Bell Spider, and, despite the chaos and fear that most spiders inspire, she has taught me something special about peace. 

​The Diving Bell Spider is the only species of spider to live almost entirely underwater. Though it is not amphibious, it rests, mates, catches and eats its prey, lays eggs and winters all under water.
How can it do this if it still needs to oxygen to live? Simple…ok…simple for her. She surfaces only long enough to trap oxygen in the fine hairs of her abdomen, and then stores that oxygen in an intricate silk web underwater. Each trip to the surface replenishes her supply and adds to her collection. In this self-made home-sweet-home, the Diving Bell Spider has learned to adapt to an environment normally hostile to survival to one such as her, but Bell…my hero…has found her own unique way.
In the quest to find peace from destructive behaviors and beliefs, there are naysayers everywhere. People come out of the woodwork to crush your dreams, or share their own stories of failure, as if you should “not get your hopes up too high.” We hear statistics on the number of people with eating disorders, failed business attempts, divorces, and relapses. It’s enough to make you tear down your web before you even start to weave it.
But Bell doesn’t listen to the killjoys of the surface. Instead, she makes her home in the depths of the impossible, where the neighbors are distant, the water is clean, and the fishing is fantastic.
I’ll be the first to admit that when I run up against obstacles, my first thoughts tend to resemble more of  the “I can’t” model. But, like my friend Bell, I’m here to tell you that it is possible to challenge those thoughts and turn them into powerful considerations of “how can I?”
We can fill our bubble with life-promoting oxygen, like spiritual strength, good people, and true principles, that will keep us going regardless of how threatening our surroundings may be. And, just like Bell, we must replenish those supplies continually…never assuming that we’ve arrived in some super-bubble state that will protect us for life. Thank you, Bell, for reminding me that we can live a life of success and significance, and that peace, like oxygen, must be cultivated and sought after, one breath at a time.