Fear

Ok, don't judge me, but I've recently finished reading the Fablehaven series... for the second time. Yes, your ten to twelve year old sibling is probably reading that too. Good for them, because it is an excellent book. So don't judge.

Anyway, an aspect of this book has been nagging at my brain for a while now and so I figured I'd get it out of my brain and onto the web. I guess it works out, sorta. In this series the main characters are nine year old Seth, and fourteen year old Kendra. They face random and fantastical challenges (which I will not give away at this time, just in case you decide you want a diversion from the everyday) but at one point Seth faces a demon which incapacitates him with a debilitating fear. Quite literally he can't move. When he finds the will to move, however each movement he makes takes a thousand times more energy to do than it normally would. This "magical fear" stops every character in their tracks- literally.

You might scoff and say "Psh, what a kids book Megan- magical fear that makes it so you can't move at all? Duh." But I couldn't help but make a connection. In all honesty I don't think anyone that reads this can say that they haven't felt something like this. Fear creeps into every aspect of life, even things that should be wonderful and exciting; you feel your stomach begin to sink and your heart races, and you can't move. You don't act.

I feel like everyone has something very similar to this fear. Sometimes it really does make one physically unable to move. For others it is the fear to move forward in the less literal sense. To make progress for better. Far too often we stay stagnant because of a debilitating fear that courses through the human body. I've been thinking about it and I no longer want fear to govern my actions. It has in the past, and I can recognize that it has created problems and made things more difficult. Today, however, I want nothing to do with this fear. If you still feel like this kids book is just for kids, I dare you to read it. The undercurrents of this book are amazing and tell a story all it's own. I want to diminish this fear. I figure if a fictional nine year old boy can overcome magical fear and progress forward into an unknown fate, so can I (probably with less demons though). I want to move forward with my life, with courage and purpose. So, that's just what has been on my mind. Continue to judge if you must, but I'm ok with reading kids books. More often than not it's simple things that teach us the most profound lessons, and I found one here.