Delores E. Topliff
Friends
who live in northern British Columbia, Canada, tell me when you
surprise bears in the forest (unless they have young with them) your best
bet is to make lots of noise and run toward them—like God had David run
toward Goliath. My friends use this technique, and it works.
The
closest I got to that situation was while working in an even more remote area
doing forestry vegetation surveys when a large unhappy moose made increasingly threatening
sounds near me.
On foot and armed with only a notebook and a small bell, I feebly sang, “No weapon formed against me will prosper,” and prayed like mad. Soon the thunderstorm that had been playing hide and seek overhead for hours boomed and headed our way. Aware of the storm but not of the L-A-R-G-E moose near me, my boss called it a day and came from a distant point on his quad to take me back to civilization.
On foot and armed with only a notebook and a small bell, I feebly sang, “No weapon formed against me will prosper,” and prayed like mad. Soon the thunderstorm that had been playing hide and seek overhead for hours boomed and headed our way. Aware of the storm but not of the L-A-R-G-E moose near me, my boss called it a day and came from a distant point on his quad to take me back to civilization.
Julius
Caesar knew this principle, too. After giving his troops their battle
strategies, he had his joke writers deliver the week’s most hilarious story just before he lowered a lance and send his men RUNNING into battle roaring with laughter.
History says that on more than half of those occasions, as enemies saw robust well-armed soldiers running toward them laughing like maniacs, the enemies turned tail and FLED rather than staying to fight.
What
about you? Whether writing a book or facing life, how we face our enemies has LOTS
to do with what happens next. Instead of cowering, change the situation. Turn the tables
on enemies by doing what they don’t expect, and make them so afraid THEY
run.
Actually little in life deserves fear. An adage says that dogs only bite
victims if they sense we’re afraid. Long
ago I (mostly) chose the habit of not yielding to fear by not giving negative
issues recognition or spending much energy on them. Most times, they shrink away to
nothing anyway. Or flee as we celebrate their departure.
Therefore, live, laugh,
TERRIFY the enemy—and enjoy happy days.
Now, tell us about a time when this has worked for you, or how you're going to face fear next time.
Now, tell us about a time when this has worked for you, or how you're going to face fear next time.
Can't think of an instance this second, but this is an awesome post!
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess every time we begin a book or enter one in a contest we do this. Sometimes it's even a little like setting "our baby" out in front of the "bear"! (I loved this post!)
ReplyDelete