Hey there,
This week's question comes from a reader named Lauren:
"I've been playing it safe for a long time. How I dress, how I show up, how much of myself I actually put out there. I want to take up more space. I just don't know how to start."
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Meet Maratus volans, the peacock spider.
It is approximately five millimeters long. That is smaller than a pencil eraser. It lives in the leaf litter of Australian forests and is, objectively, one of the smallest creatures on the continent.
When it's time to be noticed, it raises a brilliantly colored flap on its abdomen — electric blue, vivid red, bright orange, patterns that look like they were designed by someone who had never heard the word "subtle" — and it dances. Full choreography. Leg waves, body vibrations, side-to-side shuffles, a raised cape fanned to maximum width. Scientists have catalogued dozens of distinct species, each with its own unique color palette and its own signature moves.
It is five millimeters of complete, total commitment.
The peacock spider doesn't wait until it's bigger. It doesn't check whether the moment is right. It raises its cape, picks its spot, and dances as hard as it can with everything it has.
Taking up space doesn't start when you feel ready. It starts when you decide the colors you've been keeping folded up deserve to be seen.
Raise the cape. Do the dance. Let them look.
—Gabi & Bea
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