You'll Drown, Break Your Neck, Poke Out Your Eye

This month's theme: What scares me? I've finally come to grips with most of what has scared me in life. If I'd been a different sort of person there would be a multitude of things; my mother made sure of that. Don't misunderstand, I love my mother dearly. She's my biggest supporter and a good friend. But with each new thing I'd try, or even if I didn't think of trying it, she made sure to alert me to the dangers.




"Don't go in the deep end, you'll drown."
"Put that stick down. You'll poke your eye out."
"Hold on! Hold on! You'll fall out and break your neck."
"Fly there? The plane could crash."
"Don't go near the edge. You'll fall off."

With my mom it wasn't a possibility that something awful would happen. It was a certainty. I did eventually learn how to swim but not very good. At least good enough I won't drown. And I have no fear of poking out my eye when I'm cleaning up the yard. I love a roller coaster ride as long as it doesn't turn upside down. Hmm...guess falling out is a fear. I have no fear of heights, and I've taken dozens of plane trips. Do have to admit I don't enjoy flying, but as I've aged my attitude about my demise is less scary. So I try to sit back and not worry.

I do have one lingering fear, and I can't pin it on anything my mother told me or warned me about. I'm claustrophobic. In fact, Mom says even as a child I didn't like doing the cave visits. I would clutch her hand and ask when would we be done. I didn't realize this as an adult until on a trip with my husband years ago. We were on a tour of the Oregon Caves. The deeper we went the more anxious I got until fear gripped me so hard I couldn't breath. I turned around and ran with Frank on my heels. I got to the gate and it was locked. Panic. I collapsed on the ground and clung to it. Frank had to retrace his steps and find the group that was now even deeper. The guide radioed outside and they rescued me.  I've tried to reason myself out of this fear but it's useless. I just avoid anything without windows now.

A bit about me:

Although I didn’t start out to write romance, I’ve found all good stories have to involve complicated human relationships. I’ve also learned, no matter a person’s age, a new discovery is right around every corner. Whether humorous or serious, straight contemporary or mystery, all my books revolve around those two facts.

Visit Brenda at www.brendawhiteside.com.

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She blogs on the 9^th and 24^th of every month at http://rosesofprose.blogspot.com

She blogs about prairie life and writing at http://brendawhiteside.blogspot.com/