What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens.

I had an interesting spiritual lesson taught to me once, by a small moth.

I was hiking with a friend on the trails around Chimney Rock mountain in NC. The day was unusually hot and humid and I was sorely out of shape. My friend had gone on ahead, while I stayed behind for a bit and rested on a rock trying to catch my breath. While sitting there soaking up the quiet beauty of the place, I noticed some movement a short distance away. When I went to investigate, I found a small moth, helplessly struggling in a spider web – the spider watching intently, not too far away. Immediately, the fanatic photographer in me shut down and the rescuer kicked into gear. I set my camera down and began to carefully work the moth free of the web, while at the same time, trying to be careful that I didn’t disturb the powder on its wings any more than was necessary. It took several minutes that seemed much longer than they were. There were moments I feared I would not be successful without causing injury to the moth.

FINALLY the little moth was free. But he just sat idly in my hand. When he made his first attempt to flutter his wings, it became apparent that he was still helplessly entangled in the sticky strands of the web that had clung to his body. He was free of the web, but not free to fly away to safety. So my quest continued, again attempting to free him from the webs that clung to him, without causing him injury. And again, I had just about reached a point of frustration and despair when suddenly the little fellow took flight to a nearby leaf. I smiled as I watched him flutter a bit on the leaf, before taking off again and disappearing over the edge of the mountain and into the sky.

I sat back down to resume my rest and started thinking about what had just transpired. I considered how as people, we often, quite unintentionally, get caught up in webs of deception that threaten our well-being. In most cases, the more we struggle against the web, the more solidly we become entangled in it – that is the design of the spider web. How many people will pass you struggling in that web, and never even see you? Will ANYone notice and stop to try to help? And if someone does, will they also understand that often, even once freed from the web itself, you carry with you remnants of your bondage that must also be removed, before you can fly to freedom?

We need each other. And we need to take the time to really NOTICE one another, and understand why we are the way we are. There is a REASON you are who you are, where you are. There is someone who needs help, someone perhaps only you will notice, BECAUSE you are who you are and where you are. You do what you can do. You will likely never know the far-reaching effects of a seemingly insignificant act of kindness toward someone that many others might deem unimportant.

They say that often, angels, or messengers of the Divine, come to us in disguise – angels unawares, I believe is the term. Was that really a MOTH I set free that hot, quiet afternoon on top of that mountain? Or was it a messenger? Or did it BECOME a messenger, only when someone heard the message?

As for the spider, I suggested to him that he move his web closer to the rock upon which I had sat, as for some reason, that spot was literally SWARMING with mosquitoes. Granted, it may well take many more scrawny mosquitoes to equal a fat little moth meal, but just consider the richness of the meals and how much of the life-blood of a higher life form such a diet would consist of!

The moth deserved another chance at life. The spider too, deserved his meal. The mosquitoes? Well, they deserved to DIE.