1. What scares you the most?
A. Physically
B. Emotionally
How do you cope?
Hmmm, what scares me the most? You mean besides coming up with something to blog about on Wednesdays now that the RD is retired?
Its hard to separate the two types because fear of the physical hits me on an emotional level. I guess I'd say that I truly dislike small, tight, confined spaces and just the thought of being stuck in one makes me breathe hard. I am not a fan of small caves, extremely narrow tunnels, and tightly packed cable cars hanging high atop a valley.
These are typically things you can avoid unless you are part of my adventurous and fun loving family and you live abroad and spend weekends prowling around old cathedrals and estates that are filled with narrow tunnels and stairwells and you spend holidays in the mountains riding in tightly packed cable cars.
How do I cope? I pray because that's how I roll in life. I like to think I have come a long way in the process of plowing headlong into my fears with my family acting as cheerleaders. They encourage me to let go and live life and in doing so I have seen things, learned things, and loved things that I would not have experienced if I'd let fear overwhelm me.
Many lessons were learned in our years spent overseas and I think working thru some of my fears was one of them. Like most parents my biggest emotional fear is something happening to one of my children. But that is something that we have to let go of too. I'm not saying we don't take appropriate measures to keep our children safe but there is much in this world that is not within our realm of control. The older your children get the more you recognize the truth of that statement. And that brings me back to prayer. Which is a good place to be.
2. Robert Frost wrote-
Nature's first green is gold
her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
And nothing gold can stay
What comes to mind when you read the phrase, "Nothing gold can stay?"
Wow that's depressing.
Isn't it funny how words invoke emotion?
Even without analyzing this just reading it makes me feel gloomy.
I guess the theme I hear is that change is inevitable.
I mean even the weekly Random Dozen isn't permanent.
Oh I know he wasn't referring to an internet meme but it's such a downer I feel the need to inject some light here. How about a few lovely pictures taken while riding up the side of Mt. Blanc in a too tightly packed cable car?
Follow the line down and out.
Do you see the speck that is a cable car?
Some crazies, obviously without ANY fear...
In spite of a few ice crystals the mechanics worked and we did not plunge to the bottom of an ancient glacier in our too tightly packed cable car.
We're free!
and we're above the clouds...
Some of us find it thrilling...
and some of us say, "Talk to the hand!"
You know, I might have missed it.
Facing your fear can be a beautiful thing.
