Too often I initiate posts, step away with full intentions of cycling back, inadvertently orphan them, and then stumble upon them weeks, months, even years later.
Lately some of my 3-year orphans have been finding me. And their timely returns are proving uncanny. For example, in March 2017 I was inspired by a blog post, “What Scares You?“, shared by Morgan K. Wyatt (@morgankwyatt). At the time it prompted me to ruminate long and hard on the relationship with fear and fearlessness. Too long. Too hard. I never returned to the post.
Until this morning.
A timely haiku tumbled out of my almost 2-week coronavirus quarantined mind.
Break the stranglehold of angsty panic, terror's swaggering frontman.
Rereading the poem now, it sounds preachy. It wasn’t born that way. More like an internal voice reminding me to be more intentional, more proactive, less reactive, less willing to allow anxiety to morph into paralyzing fear. I remembered Ms. Wyatt’s words.
At times, I worry we are becoming a nation addicted to fear. When I mention taking a hot air balloon ride or using a zipline, a half dozen people will have some horror tale about someone they never met or possibly never existed dying in a horrific manner doing the very same activity.
Source: Morgan K. Wyatt, “What Scares You?“
Is fear controlling your life? Think what it would be like to live fearlessly.
My original reflection about questing to become ever-more fearless feels dated today. Instead I offer you Ms. Wyatt’s question and her challenge. I believe that they’re more timely than ever. Carpe midlife!