Love Greater Than Fear

Fear is a crappy thing.  It makes you feel vulnerable, stressed, and even crippled. You can’t move forward because you are too scared something will go wrong or something bad might happen.  I’ve watched friends and family succumb to it and was totally unable to help because its such an internal thing. I have had my fair share of fear (mostly in the form of clowns and escalators) but I realized that there is only one thing that can overcome it and that’s love.  That sounds pretty cheesy, I know. Think about it though…people do amazing and wonderful things they never thought possible in the name of love.  They jump in front of subway trains to save lives, go to the battlefield to defend their country, and go to third world countries in the midst of diseases.  They feed homeless people, take in children, go into burning buildings, and defend their friends against bullies.

I’ve had lots of time to wrestle with the idea of fear since I decided to hike the AT. I am scared for lots of reasons, (mostly running into a moose), but I know that the reason for doing this is bigger than me. My fear of running into wild animals , not getting to sleep in my comfy bed every night, being dirty and smelly, not having enough water, thunderstorms and lightning, mice crawling over my face while I sleep, (that has happened…I had the poop on me to prove it), being snake-bit, infested with ticks,being away from my family for 5 months,and generally afraid that I may get murdered is outweighed by the love I have for kids I don’t even know yet. I have seen pictures of them and heard plenty of stories that would make a grown man cry.

I have every intention of enjoying the AT with ever fiber of my being. I plan to hike with a purpose.  Life is too short to half-way do things.  Its too fleeting to get caught up in the what ifs and hows.  Fear can stop you dead in your tracks and I choose love over that crappy thing called fear.