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Fear

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. – Franklin D. Roosevelt

Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. – Marie Curie

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. – Eleanor Roosevelt

Some have been thought brave because they were afraid to run away. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive — the risk to be alive and express what we really are. – Don Miguel Ruiz

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. – Anne Frank

While walking my dog today, we discovered that she has a rather random fear of…  street drains.

You know, those openings in the sidewalk where excess rain/water gets eventually diverted into the ocean (well, at least here in California).

It was a bit funny actually. Every time we would walk past those menacing dark openings, she would try to scurry away and get as far from it as possible. =)

Anyway, these episodes pretty much made me think about my own fears.

What am I afraid of and why?

Are my fears rational or completely irrational like my dog’s fear of street trains? =)

These days, my remaining phobias would have to be acrophobia and arachnophobia .

Rational? I think so. I’m only afraid of heights when unrestrained.  (I love going on roller coasters that take me to great heights and send me plunging down or upside down because I know I’m safely strapped in. But high buildings with only glass walls… I’m not strapped in even though the glass is there… but the glass doesn’t feel as secure as having roller coaster restraints. =P)  

For instance, in a high place where the possibility of falling to my death is a very real threat.

“The natural bridge is 40 m long, 2 m wide, 5 m thick, with a span of 20 m and an arch height of 300 m. It is known as ‘The First Bridge in the World’ because of its height seldom seen in the world.”

The threat of plunging 300m (nearly 1,000 feet!) to my death was surely real when I was in China last summer. Boy, did I have to suck it up and overcome that fear of heights. Otherwise, I would have been stuck up there and died. Sad. =)

As for spiders, I suppose it’s still rational. There are deadly spiders that could kill me. But of course, it all began when I was a little kid and a harmless daddy long-legs landed on my shoulder which, at the time, was nearly as big as my head! =)

I wonder if fears, once overcome, cease to be fears. Because acrophobia seems to follow me even after each instance of victory over fear.

And after watching Click   (which I thought was a really good movie even though I went in thinking it’d be pretty dumb), I think I might also be afraid of passing through my life in fast forward . “Family comes first.” Even though I think that I believe this, perhaps I’m afraid that when the time comes, I might make the wrong choice when it comes to family vs. whatever-it-may-be.

And of course, an even greater fear than that would be to find myself at the end of my life… and not be able to say that I’d fought the good fight and finished the race…

But yeah, I should only allow one fear to be present in my life…

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. – Proverbs 1:7 ESV

So, what do you fear? Why?