If you’ve been reading my posts lately, you know that I made a lone journey from Indianapolis, Indiana to visit my lovely friend and exceptional metalsmith, Ginger Meek Allen, in North Carolina. A trip of well over 600 miles, many of them over mountains that go way up in the air. A few points:
1.      I like flat – my childhood was spent in the dirt of cornfields and prairies in central Illinois
2.      I fear heights, bridges, closed-in places, failure, success, hate, melting my work, and spiders
3.      I’m sick and tired of fear
4.      I’m turning 50 and plan to celebrate all year
5.      Love
Turning 50 this year has spawned an intention to make this year my own – create a few trips, visits and experiences that are singularly meaningful and bring joy. That’s when I thought to visit Ginger and pair a visit with a learning experience. The trip through mountains meant list items #2 and #3 were going to have to be addressed. So be it. I was sick and tired of fear clawing joy from my life. This time, I’d be creating a path through fear. Later on, I found the part Number 5 played in this journey.
So, the drive through the mountains was fine, right? Heck, naw. The steering wheel has permanent marks from the death grip it endured for hours. I pulled off the road several times to let “normal” drivers pass, and sweated through my clothes more times than could be counted. Tired and lost, my eventual arrival, safe and sound, was pretty anticlimactic. The best part was being with my friend and her family for eleven days after that!
Since I’ve returned home, things taste a little different. There’s a little more peace inside. A little more Number Five. Room has been created in which to examine thoughts for potential lessons in what it means to love and accept things as they are, and in the process, myself.
My inner peace isn’t perfect, but it’s growing every day, and to feed it, I know what I need to do. Fear, my old friend, here I come. Because when you make friends with fear, you put yourself on the path to inner peace, and inner peace is love.
I’d like to hear what you are afraid of in matters both large and small, whether you have been able to find a path through fear, and how you did it. Really.