Do you remember the story of King Robert The Bruce and the spider?  I was told that story many times when I was a child.  For those who don’t know the story (in a nutshell):

King Robert The Bruce was crowned King of Scotland in 1306 and remained king until his death in 1329.  These were tumultuous times in what is now the United Kingdom of Scotland, England and Northern Ireland.  England had been able to raise up armies and had conquered Ireland and Scotland and occupied the two countries.  After Robert was able to claim the throne of Scotland,  England went to war against him.  Six battles were fought, and Robert suffered defeat in each of them.  After the sixth battle, many of the Scottish troops fled, demoralized by their losses.  Even King Robert had feelings of discouragement, despondency,  loss, and giving up.

After the sixth battle, Robert sought refuge for sleep in a barn. While in the barn, he watched a spider trying to spin a web.  The spider was attempting to  attach one end of it’s thin thread to a wooden ceiling beam, and from there, jump across to another ceiling beam.  It’s first effort was not a success. Again the spider tried, and again and again.  Robert counted each attempt, and after the sixth attempt, spoke out, “Och yae poor wee spider.  You know what failure is like as well, don’t ye?” The spider was never going to be able to make it, Robert believed.

But the spider did not give up.  Once again, the spider jumped and on it’s seventh attempt, made it across. This was the inspiration Robert needed to straighten out his own feelings, round up his demoralized forces and encourage them to try again.  For the seventh time, Robert met the English in battle and won it.  From there, he was able to rout them out of Scotland in subsequent battles and secured the border.

If you believe in something, and the Universe seems to have given you certain talents or brought certain things together, it does require effort and sometimes, great effort. Perhaps this is what  Marianne Williamson meant when she said, “The purpose of our lives is to give birth to the best which is within us.”  How can we find the best that is within  us if we don’t have some challenges along the way?

I know myself that it can be “easy” to feel discouraged.  Those who know me, know I have a tendency to wear my heart on my sleeve.  But I also know that the only way to move forward is to get up, and continue to believe, have faith, and try again.   Sometimes, we might need to change some behavior or habit that is destructive and slows us down in moving towards what we want, or is destructive in our relationships. And as we change those habits and behaviors, we are giving birth to the best that is within us.

Sometimes it can be easy to get down on ourselves, when what is more helpful is to remember the assets we have, our skills, talents, and resources available to us and find ways to more efficiently use them. Keeping that weekly “Success Journal” can be most helpful during those moments – being able to go back and read about our successes in the past and what we overcame in order to achieve them.

This week, think about how you can use your talents to serve yourself and others. Write them down.  And start using them. And never ever give up.

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