Discovering our Courage

There is also a lot of anxiety our there over financial situations and the ability to find more money out there. Everyone is sharing more, helping each other out a little more and bartering goods and services they no longer can afford. For some people, it’s very difficult to admit that they need help because of a fear they’ll be judged. Looking at the situation from the outside though, it’s a life lesson in growing the soul to reach out to others. Discovering your courage and letting down the walls to ask for help. These changes are happening at a time when you needed changes in your life.

As a teenager and a young adult, I grew to be terribly afraid of heights and closed in spaces. This was a big challenge for me every time we went to visit my Grandmother at her apartment. She lived on the 8th floor and I would walk up and down eight flights of stairs instead of riding in the elevator. Whenever I tried to go out on her balcony, I would get a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach, feel disoriented and walk right back in. I knew that these fears were silly but I didn’t understand where they were coming from. I finally decided that I had to start getting in the elevator whether I wanted to or not. So on the next visit I did. That was the day she told me about her friend down the hall getting stuck in the elevator for hours and having to be rescued! Needless to say, I took the stairs again on my way out. I couldn’t recall being trapped in a small space or falling from a high place in this lifetime but somehow the fear was inside me. As a small child I had been to NYC and we toured the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty with no problem. Gradually I adapted to my surroundings. I always took the stairs unless it was a glass elevator or I had to go above the 8th floor. I even sat in the lobby once at the Sears Tower while my friends went all the way to the top. I just could not make myself get in that elevator.

Not long after that, I was invited to go on a spelunking (caving) trip. Hmmm, let’s see, rappelling down a rope from a tall height down into an enclosed space deep in the ground and then crawling on your hands and knees in the dark! That ought to cure it! So I went. I put on the gear and even though I had a lot of fear, I was determined to go. There were some really pretty things (and some a little slimy) down underground and since all these other people were having fun; I joined the club for several years. That’s when I also learned that a little fear is always a good thing. It forces you to check your equipment to make sure you don’t get hurt, it keeps you awake! The power that I felt after that first trip was incredible. I felt like I could accomplish other things in my life now that I had been afraid to try before. I also learned how to traverse on a zip line across a canyon filled with water and goes mountain biking on very steep trails. With all these new experiences, an elevator ride didn’t seem too scary anymore.