"When you are grateful fear disappears and abundance appears."
~Anthony Robbins
Fear seems visual. If we are afraid of something, it has a way of conusming all of our proverbeal vision. Our mind, our time, and our energy becomes overwhelemed by that which we fear. I remember when I first started motorcyling. My lovely wife decided it would be a very good idea if I were to do the training with Team Oregon, buy myself a motorcycle, and continue on my trajectory of being awesome. While that last bit was inevitable, I decided a motorcycle couldn't hurt.
Team Oregon is a highly suggestable motorcyle training course that provides both theoretical and practical experience about motorcycleing in the state of Oregon. They arm you with useful statistics, techniques, and hands on training, as well as a practice on lightweight bikes. It's one of the finer ways to get into biking. On day one they tell me that you should never, ever look at anything you fear. The reason for that is when you are riding you have a tendency to go where you look. The best way to avoid an accident is to look to the safe spot.
This is easier said than done. Shortly after I took the class I had saved up enough cash to buy a starter bike. I practically lived on Craigslist until I found something in my price range, arranged a time to look at the bike, and showed up to test ride. Mind you, I'd never actually ridden on a street, and I was about to ride a motorcycle that was bigger than anything I'd ever ridden before.
Four or five blocks from the guys house, I was coming up on an intersection, and there was a large SUV that was menacingly approaching the same intersection. I admit here and now, I was scared of this SUV. I was afraid of the soccer mom, and whether or not she was paying attention to me or her cell phone. I had already signaled to turn left, away from the overbearing, slowly creeping vehicle that was the object of my fear, and I know that I wasn't supposed to look at the SUV. I knew I was supposed to look at the clear street to the left, but my eyes were glued. I couldn't see anything except that Ford Expedition.
As you might of guessed, I set the bike down on its side, and the setting down was somewhat less than graceful. Fortunately it was a light enough bike that I was able to lift it back up quickly, and ride it back to the guys house. I promptly bought the motorcycle, and the guy was kind enough to put it on his truck and drop it off at my place for me.
My fear blocked my vision and made my life somewhat more complicated than it should have been. I hope never to have these sorts of things happen to me in other places of my life; I want to focus on being grateful, rather than focus on things that I'm scared of. I'm often reminded of how many times God/Jesus says "Fear Not" and I think that can't be a coincidence. It's like God knows how we are and what we struggle with.
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