Fear

I want to talk about overcoming fear, or outgrowing a childhood fear.

Mine was always bees. Terrified, screaming and shrieking from the general vicinity whenever I heard the ominous buzzing near me. Although I've never been stung or even close, I could never trust the little creatures that wore jumpsuits made for bug prison. And I mean, what the heck? They can fly even though their wings aren't meant to let them? WTH MAN?!

That was the opinion that I used when I forced people to protect me from them.

Sometimes, I've found that I don't have the fears I do when I attempt something. Like, for the longest time when I was a kid I would NOT take medicine. Pills, liquid, this gir--I mean person would rather have let the sickness ride out than swallow. And then, ten years later, my mom got me some meds for strep or what have you, and she was cautious to say that they were...pills. I told her I was fine to take them (to my surprise) and I took them, no problem. No transition between I can do small pills not big pills, no freaking about gel caps, everything was fine. Swallow. Easy, suddenly.

So when I went camping over the labor day weekend, I realized that I wasn't terrified of bees anymore. In fact, I found that they are cute! Okay, not puppy adorable, but I think the way they use their legs is just really cute. I know. I also like the smell of skunk and I don't like the letter O. This person has got her pack of crazy at Costco.

I wanted a bee to land near me so that I could see them closer, so that they would stop looking like a haze so I could just see them as they were. Then they were brush off their head with their arms like my dog does sometimes when I brush my hair on his face. Cute. When I heard the "ominous buzzing," I wasn't scared. I looked around and tried to see where it would land. Of course, when they got up in my face I would swipe them away because they weren't being civil. That's perfectly fine to do.

Sometimes you just outgrow a fear, like an allergy or a pair of jeans. It sheds off like skin. Don't be closed off to things because you had been afraid or hated them as a kid. Realize that you change, and you mold differently as you experience things. Fears become beautiful, and beautiful things turn into fears. 

Except for the fear of spiders. That will never change.