"The only thing we have to fear... is fear itself"

"The only thing we have to fear... is fear itself"

This was first said by Franklin D. Roosevelt in his inaugural speech in 1933. He was talking to a country that was recovering from it's biggest economic crisis and was seeing a war on the horizon. Now that I think about it, it feels like the world has not changed so much, now we are currently recovering from an economic crisis , albeit not our biggest and we are feeling the tremors of war in the East.

These similarities aside I believe that these words can be applied to my life. I do not live my life in fear , however at times find myself terrified when facing the unknown. I don't think this is an unreasonable reaction, especially as my recent past is filled with instances where I have neither been able to control the situation nor the outcome and just had to hope for the best. Just that hope... which no matter how active you are in your hope, no matter how many candles you light, how many prayers are said on your behalf, it's just hope. Hope can be one of the most powerful resources we as humans have, it has enabled people to survive a multitude or horrendous situations.  But once negativity, which in this case is fear you feel the hope wavering because it is "just" hope, it not fact , there is no guarantee that everything will work out. So fear can often kill what hope we have, driving us to make different decisions, taking the safe option that offers a logical and certain outcome.

I was a victim of fear in my past, I believe all of us were at some point. And now when I look back one single thing made me afraid, throughout all of the times in my life when I had fear. What was that one thing? Fear of the unknown. This fear stems from being unable to see beyond the action or the event. To ignore this fear is easier said than done. But we must remember it for what it is , it is "just" fear, like hope is "just" hope and it can be turned into a positive thing  as easily as hope can be made negative. Because what it is fear, often it is uncertainty , it means you don't know what is going to happen.

Unfortunately no matter how safe a life we make for ourselves , no matter how much insurance we have, or pensions we pay into we cannot control everything in our life. So what exactly am I saying? I am saying fear is one thing , it is uncertainty. And also that uncertainty is something that is unavoidable, no matter how much we want to we cannot stop this world from turning.

I will leave you with the words of the great Baz Luhrmann:


The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mindThe kind that blindsides you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday


Remember it is just the fear of what you don't know that is stopping you!!