Have you ever wished
you could
Boss Your Fear?

I took my teenage boys to an amusement park
and reluctantly agreed to accompany them
on a roller coaster ride.
It was one of those big, old, wooden monstrosities.
The kind of rollercoaster that
shakes and tosses you around inside the cart
until your sunglasses fly off your face and
most of the contents of your purse
fall into the abyss below the tracks.
As the roller coaster thrashed us about,
fear crawled up the back of my throat.
I thought,
Why did I ever agree to come on this ride?
I’ll probably die and my children will be orphans!

“This is terrifying!” I shrieked to my son.
“I hate this. How do I make it stop!”

“You can’t stop it, Mama.
You just gotta do it scared!”
my son yelled back.

There was nothing to do but hang on and ride it out.

Rationally, I knew that millions of people
had survived the ride,
but at that moment it didn’t feel like
I was going to.

Maybe that’s how you feel now.
Like you’re being rattled and shaken and
tossed about and that
you’re not going to make it.

Fear creeps up on you and
your mind is filled with
Why’s and What if’s?

That’s the ugly, scary part of fear.
The powerful unknown.