There is something liberating about being unafraid.
I felt it recently - a new feeling for me - and it made me realise how our little fears and phobias define us and our behaviour.
I have already digressed, a typical digression no doubt for someone who is keen to look away when it comes to the myriad of things that prickle my skin.
But not on this day. Today, I am the hero of this particular story. Today, I am the girl who caught the spider.
I don't say this metaphorically either. Today was the actual the day I caught the actual spider. He ran away from me for a while but my skills with pieces of paper eventually saw him coaxed aboard the A4 magic carpet train and whisked outside onto greener pasture, placed there and gently waved goodbye.
I am not afraid of spiders. In fact, I have to say I am quite fond of them. That's not to say that my house looks like something from a haunted horror story. Spiders and their webs do not need to play indoors to keep me happy. But spiders outside can spin away for all I care. Me and Charlotte could co-exist quite nicely.
This, by the way, isn't a story about spiders. This is a story about feeling brave and unencumbered. Because she who shies away from heights (just thinking about anything higher than about a metre and a half makes my heart beat faster) and snakes and toads is usually at the brunt of other people. These are people who simply don't understand the fear of walking across a bridge or scaling two escalators in a row.
That is until those self same people cringe and back away from the hairy friend at my place.
The tables had turned and this was my chance to wave the offending arachnid aloft and gloat at the misfortune and discomfort of my chief antagonisers.
Too often I have been beckoned aboard unnatural places where no man is meant to go, only to back away slowly. The view from the Empire State building for example is wonderful from the ground. And if I was meant to walk on treed canopies, I would have been given winged feet.
But placed me in a sticky web and I can cocoon myself in the liberating comfort and superiority of feeling unafraid.