The theme for last week’s Whiplash competition over at Whipup was “no fear.”

Looking at the entries this morning, I was reminded how often I personally feel fear and always think that it is an emotion I am going through alone. The entries were all gorgeous and striking, the antidote to anti-fear, if you will.

Browsing through them made me wonder why we feel that fear should be something we are ashamed of or bewildered by or trapped in. Because we are all scared that what we do will bring about a negative response or that we aren’t enough to some degree or that we will never reach our potential or never find love or that we are too old to become truly good at something or a million other things that we could choose from the ether.

Because knowing that I am not alone in my myriad fears makes them seem less powerful. More like shadows behind the hedge instead of monsters. Knowing that these fears are normal makes me less timid and more curious. Realizing that they are not just my own wakes me to the fact that everytime we listen to fear we are reconstructing walls born from our own fallacies about this thing called life.

Perhaps by beginning to release this well of fear within us, we will be okay with our best efforts instead of constantly doubting what could have been.