This morning I got a bit more than I expected as I took my shower. As began to shave my legs and looked down at the shower floor for the first time, I spied an enormous thousand leger trying to climb up and out near the door of the shower. I knew he would never make it up the slippery fiberglass to his escape, but it was my escape that I was mostly worried about.
There I was, standing behind this insect in a state of panic; I am terrified of spiders of all kinds and never get this close to them on purpose. After letting out a high-pitched scream I held onto the back wall of the shower to try to think through the situation. First of all, I had to admit to myself that this creature was just as terrified as I was, especially after hearing my scream. Secondly, eventually my husband, who was out on the back patio enjoying coffee and the Sunday newspaper, would come up for his shower. I could surely stay alive until he arrived, couldn’t I?
After a few minutes more of breathing and calming myself and not having any success at willing my husband to the bathroom, I decided to turn the water off. Washing my hair was out of the question since it would require loosing visual contact with the creature. As soon as I turned off the water, the thousand leger moved a little, so I quickly turned it back on ignoring my concerns about water conservation in the middle of a draught. So there we stood, the creature and I, frozen in our collective states of panic both wondering (I am sure), how we would escape the situation.
As the minutes ticked by, I made the decision to make my exit. It took another few minutes to talk myself into it and then I leapt out, leaving the creature safely behind me in the slippery stall that he couldn’t escape.
It amazing how easy it actually was to climb out of that shower. Then I watched Rick effortlessly gather up the thousand leger into a glass to carry him outside to safety with quite a bit of ease also, and I began to process the event and how paralyzing fears can be.
I wondered what other fears might be locking me into the shower stalls of my life and how like this incident, they may actually be much easier to leap over then I have allowed myself to believe. How about you, have you examined your fears lately to see if they are as scary as you have imagined? Is the consequence of your fear worth what it is keeping you from doing or achieving?. Take the leap out of that shower stall and challenge your assumptions, You may find, as I did, that your monster is really just a little bug.
