Spiders

I remember one winter morning when I had known my husband for only a few months, we found a spiders web dripping with dew jewels, just by his front door. He was surprised by how beautiful I found it, as though it had never occured to him before. But he remembered and for my first Christmas present a few weeks later, he gave me a book with an inscription 'Beautiful like a spider's web'.

Through my writing I have been spinning webs of meaning in my life, always trying to make sense, always trying to connect one thing to another, to hang quivering diamonds delicately on the strings of our lives. I have realised how much of a relentless spider I am.

I have also realised how easy it is for me to slip through the net that I have spent 100 days spinning; how long it takes to make a habit and how quick it is to break it, the way you can bring an intricate web floating down with one impatient flick of a feather duster.