Heart-stopping fear

Delores E. Topliff

What? A ghost? We’re well-past Halloween, that holiday where spooks say “Boo” and cause heart-stopping fear. 

Ideal life and writing is not always untroubled smooth sailing. It includes surprise ups and downs that define success—or show what's needed to succeed next time.

I couldn’t master bike riding at age ten until my little sister tumbled down a cellar coal chute and needed rescue. Then I quit concentrating on balance and which foot to put where and simply pedaled like mad across the park to rescue her. Bike riding became easy.

In college I couldn’t manage ski rope tows and got thrown every time until an instructor stood behind me, put his arms around me, and said, “Just relax, let me carry you up.” He did and it worked great. And what had been impossible became easy after that.

My mother’s great fear of snakes influenced us kids until I made myself fight to be a good example for my grandkids. Though snakes are still not my favorite creatures, I can touch them now without revulsion, once I know which are truly harmful and which are non-dangerous lookalikes. In some areas of Israel, I scan paths for serpents, but turn off that brain function when back home.

The Ebola scare intensified while we were away. Five airports including Chicago had begun screening procedures by our return. One mature Christian woman on our team trusts God for health issues and thrived in Israel. When we changed planes in Paris, her new seatmate was a nurse who had been visiting home but was returning to the U.S.

“Where is home for you?”

“West Africa.”

“Do they have Ebola there?”

“Further away. Our area is fine.”

U.S. Customs forms came around needing completion. The nurse asked to borrow my friend’s pen. Small requests sometimes become bigger issues . . .

Even in fiction when characters overcome challenges that defeated them before, we celebrate their growth—and are encouraged to do the same.

Have you faced heart-stopping fear? Are there things that used to paralyze you that no longer do? Tell us about them, and what made the difference.