Not Knowing

Is it fear or something else?

When I was a child I would say fear of the unexplained was the greatest of all. Of the darkness, of strange sounds or animals or strangers. Perhaps as we get and gain knowledge we no longer are afraid. Looking back, I realize those fears were more imagined than real.

Hiking alone in the wilderness can give rise to those childhood fears again. Most fears come from the part of our brain that seeks self preservation. The “lizard brain” processes how we handle fear. When it tries to seize control, I overcome it by understanding why I am afraid in the first place, and then facing that fear by action, or dismissing it as without foundation. Sometimes it’s just a worry about what challenge will be waiting around the next curve in the road.

As I become older, I can look to the past, realizing how being afraid, or worrying was unhelpful, an obstacle to a better life.

What happens next? This was once a fear, like the others above, of the unknown.

I won’t know until I get there, and neither will you. We aren’t meant to know. Instead of being afraid, be curious.