“A door opened and I went through it.” – Temple Grandin
I finally got to see the movie Temple Grandin this week.
wOw!
If you haven’t yet seen it, I hope you will. It’s one of those rare movies I want to purchase. So I can watch it whenever I need some reminders about frustration, fear, determination, honesty, passion, humanity, overcoming the odds and cows.
It made me think ~ a lot. One of the things it made me think about was how I try to manage fear rather than invite her to be my companion (albeit often an unpleasant one).
There are so many times I want to do/be something that frightens me.
- Sometimes I let fear win out and give up.
- Sometimes I stuff fear back down or ignore her and move on.
- And sometimes I stay afraid and do/be it anyway.
I always feel most satisfied with option 3 ~ although, I almost always have to try 1 or 2 first. I’m stubborn. I AM trainable though. So I’m going into training ~ fear training. The next time she visits, I’m going to welcome her; accept her wisdom and nudgings; then I’m going to choose the next right step and invite her along.
How do you manage visits from fear?
Lisa’s Cheap Therapy blog 
I haven’t seen the movie, but I’m trying to think about what I truly fear….I think that concerning what I want to do or be, I have always had a fairly good sense of what I was capable of, and if the thing in question was beyond what I knew to be “safe” for me, I just didn’t even consider it as an option. Maybe I’m just a “chicken”, but I haven’t missed what I haven’t done. (Except backpacking through Europe during my college years! I was afraid I would get stuck without resources and no one to save me!) Otherwise, when I’ve had to do something to get me to where or what I wanted, I think I have just charged ahead blindly, blissfully ignorant of fearful consequences, figuring I could make it work, somehow. After I became a mother, however, I grew to know fear for things I have no control over. The thought of harm coming to my children terrifies me. When facing fearful situations when they were little, I guess I just turned the fear into prayer that all would be well. My children are now “grown,” but I still fear so much concerning them and their lives. I am working very hard on giving that fear to a higher power, knowing those lives are theirs to live now, and the best I can do is just love, love, love them.
I think “Temple Grandin” helped me see that all the stuff we whine and moan about in our daily lives is really trivial compared to what many people face just making it through each day. I’m still trying to understand autism, and what it’s like to really not see the world like most people see it. But TG is wonderful at showing what determination can do….no matter what you’re dealing with.
I’ve come to realize I don’t really know what I fear. YES, there are scary things but so far in life, there is nothing that has me paralyzed with fear.
I guess I kind of follow your third door philosophy, Lisa. And OH YES, I pray ALOT while walking through that door!
ML, ah yes ~ love, love, love. I think you’ve got something there…
Tom, yep ~ determination ROCKS…
Judi, LOUD cheers to prayer…
thanks, ya’ll!
Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing.
Amen, Kelly!