I fear; I fear not. I fear; I fear not......

Is it just Me, or do you, too, think of picking petals off a daisy when reading the title, above?

FEAR; even the word sounds scary.  But, what is it? I suppose it is different for as many as would hazard a guess at the answer.

Fair to say, it means different things to different people.  Perhaps based on outside influences, hearsay, something about which we know too little, opinions of others…the unknown…all reasonable.

Perhaps what is most significant about fear is how we react to it.  If fear paralyzes us, it controls us; it wins.  If fear pushes us to try something new, or to try again…to step out of a comfort zone, then, it is a challenge…it is what helps us grow.  So, what is most significant, perhaps, is how we don’t react to it.  Choice!

TheIWLA member, Michelle Bilodeau shares her personal perspective about her relationship with fear….

Fear Calls Us to Look it Straight in the Eye and Do That Which We Think We Cannot Do ~ 

by Michelle Bilodeau

Initially, I could only hear the first part of the quote, "Fear calls us". I had learned to hear its call morning, noon and night. It had become quite a companion. Fear seemed to be included in just about everything I said or did. I guess I thought it was normal. Naive, but I didn't know that then. Fear had been winding its way through my mind and my body for years. I grew accustomed to it.  I didn't like the limitations of fear, but then again, I didn't know its name at that point. I only knew I was 'cautious'. I would overrule my intuition continually.  If my 'gut' suggested I do something or go somewhere that would cause me to stretch my parameters, my head was quick to rebut and put me back into my 'place'. A sort of malignant growth that had attached itself to me - with my consent. I'd captured myself and had become powerless, as I convinced myself daily that this was no big deal!

My body, though, was saying something entirely different. Flexibility had just about gone out the window. Walking anywhere was minimal at best. I knew my body was speaking, but I really didn't want to listen.  To listen meant I would have to make different choices. To listen meant I would have to get off my butt and face...who and what I'd become. Ugh. It would be much easier, my mind would say, to just stay with the status quo. So I would - again and again.  A sort of 'self-testing' to see who would win. My confident mind or my screaming body.

My first grandchild arrived in the midst of this secret battle. I was afraid to even hold him if I wasn't sitting down, stabilized on the chair. But it wasn't until the second grandchild was born that I actually 'gave in' and began to see the shocking carnage I'd allowed in my body. The weakness. The instability. The frailness. It wasn't a pretty picture. Even so, fear kept trying to convince me to keep on keepin' on.

It really wasn't until I stopped and meditated on this lion photograph that I began.... (emphasis on 'began') to even try (another emphasis on 'try') to understand what I saw in the baby lion's posture: the word "No". Saying 'no' to the fears in my mind was like sitting in front of that Daddy Lion being quite assured I would be eaten if I didn't 'obey'. How in the world could that little guy stand up to the 'possibilities' of  saying 'no' to such an ominous opponent?

Here is where the light went on. The Daddy Lion wasn't baby's opponent. He was his teacher. I realized that in order for him to develop into the mighty lion he could be, Daddy was teaching him that with every fear, there is a doorway to freedom from it where we can retrieve our beautiful gifts abandoned behind that fear.  And that doorway opens by saying 'No'. (Nature is so honest...) There is always something more important than fear itself. A lesson I'm still learning daily. (Maybe that's still 'hourly'... ) I'd been waiting for fear to basically disappear. About as illogical as Dracula turning around and walking away from gallons of fresh blood! 

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So, IS it just me, or do you, too feel that Michelle has slayed her dragon, named Fear?  I am certain of it, because she has fearlessly exposed herself in sharing her past – and it is her past. DONE.

 

I love the “lion theme”; it makes me think Lion King, whose lesson is the circle of life.  Yes, this is it!  Michelle has completed this circle and living fearlessly has to mean to be living more freely.  Good for you, Michelle.

I have been called fearless; but, I am not reckless.  I am willing to build bridges so I can cross them.  My greatest fear is to live with regret and wonder “what if”.

Dream.  Dare.  Determine.  Do.  Delight.

“…we have nothing to fear but fear itself”

U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt