The other day, a friend
asked: "What is your biggest fear in life?" I didn't
respond promptly, as I always do. "Ha ha", he said: "You
seem to be like me, harbouring more than one fear, right?" “Wrong”, I said: “I was in fact searching for one that frightens me.”
He wasn't convinced: “How can you say that? Everyone experiences fear. It is like any
other emotion that grips you without warning. Why are you ashamed
to accept it? Don't you think, fear in a way, helps us to counter or
circumvent an imminent danger? Most often our reflexes help us. Only in its absence, does fear keep haunting us, and disrupting our thoughts
and lives.”
He continued: “In my
case, loneliness is at the root of all my fear. Seclusion, solitude,
isolation, alienation..., call it whatever you want. Even within
the family, I feel like an island without a bridge. Covid-19 has
made that feeling worse, imposing unimaginable restrictions, and
threatening to wreck my faculties.”
You may wonder.., has
this guy gone bonkers? No. He was openly expressing his
concerns. And the reality is, he is not alone. Many people I talk
to, express increasing levels of boredom, lethargy, and fatigue. There is an air of all round uncertainty. The question is, how long
is this going to last? Would we ever see ''good days'' again?
Life, we are told, is
beautiful. But we tend to forget, how that beautiful life shocks us
at times. In such moments of anxiety, fear, and helplessness, if we have to retain our mental balance, we must stay calm, confident and
optimistic.
The one-liner below tells us, nothing is ever totally
lost, even when we fear falling into an abyss!
