Fear

We fear Life.

We fear Death.

We fear Comfort.

We fear Uncertainty.

Why does fear form such an inherent part of our lives? We teach children to fear certain forces if they misbehave. We teach them to fear the dark. We teach them to fear ferocity. We end up teaching each other fear for the unknown.

I fear failure. I fear to live in obscurity. I fear loss. Hard as much as I try, I am unsuccessful in controlling and confronting my fears. My imagination runs wild in conjuring the worst of situations and possible outcomes for things not in place, not yet existing. I fear my dreams too. They are ferocious and brutal sometimes, killing my spirits. I fear the time to come. I fear not being able to acknowledge my potential and capability to its fullest. And, I fear the sheer helplessness that makes me moan my anguish here. 

Are we born this way? Is there a genetic factor that determines our fear scales? Why is it that nothing seems to be born out of fearlessness? We must first fear something, go through an ordeal, learn from it and then collect the necessary courage to face those fears throughout a lifetime. I often tell my students to be fearless in their conquest for design, creative inputs, in thinking. I might need to also assert them to embrace the blankness that engulfs us all. Our human minds are complex networks of a hundred thousand thoughts. As I sift through years of my diaries, suddenly it becomes clear to me that uncertainty and chaos are meant to challenge and help us grow in our quest for more newer things to embark upon. If there's truly something that my mind reinforces is the belief that everything is doable. Fear will always be present in a small corner of our minds, trying to dissuade us. We might succumb to it, what matters most is regaining enough power and mental strength to keep going. No matter how old we get, we should keep challenging and contradicting ourselves. Nothing we think can make us fear from reciprocating and succumbing if only we keep moving. Never stop. As I remember George Bernard Shaw's quote "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."