Overcoming

Fear- The big, fat, nasty ugly thing with yellowed buck teeth and greasy hair and wretched breathe.

The thing that keeps us from sleep and dominates our minds, stealing one minute of joy at a time.

It's inherent. Starts with—  fear of the loud flush of the toilet,  the dark, of being left alone, of going into an unfamiliar space or walking down into dark basement.

Then graduates to— fear of not measuring up, getting a huge zit, the things others think, being exposed, being taken, that mean teacher.

It morphs and moves and comes at us with— fear of flying, fear of loss, fear of not having done enough in this life, fear of not having enough money at the end of the month, fear your children will misbehave, fear of speaking up in a crowd, fear of taking a chance, fear of... you fill it in. 


The point is IT CAN BE relentless. It can be paralyzing. It can dominate your landscape.

But, it doesn't have to, right?

What does OVERCOMING fear look like? To me, it looks like a prayer for help and action that follows.

It looks like— Taking the chance that if you flush it, the toilet won't, in fact, devour you. And making fun of your own huge zit and realizing there is camaraderie in such a thing. And giving thanks when your mind wants to replay all the ways everything could fall apart.

And each time you overcome, you are causing that big, fat, nasty ugly thing with yellowed buck teeth and greasy hair and wretched breathe to shrink and shrivel and retreat.

Here's to punching fear in the face and not letting it steal one more moment from you... or me.