Fear of Falling!

Thump!  Waaaah!

I had fallen out of bed, for the umpteenth time!

The Uncle who raised me was tired of being awakened and having to come and put me back into the bed.

At his wit’s end, he spanked me and told me not to fall out of bed again.

After that, I stopped falling out of bed – I would wake up teetering on the edge and about to fall out, but didn’t.

That transitioned to me dreaming of falling off a cliff – and waking up, terrified, before I smashed my body at the end of the fall.

Night after night, the same dream, the same cliff, waking up with my heart pounding!

Finally I had enough – I was p*ssed!

That night, as I fell off the cliff in my dream I said, “I am not waking up – if I die, I die!”

Faster and faster I fell; the air rushing past, the ground facing towards me – I held firm in my resolve.

Suddenly, my descent slowed – I rotated from head first to feet first – and landed gently on my feet.

“That’s it?” I said.

“This is what I have been afraid of all this time?”

I looked around and saw an incredibly beautiful valley, sunny, a light breeze blowing, perfect temperature, birds singing.

That was the last time I had a falling-off-the-cliff dream.

I had discovered that this enormous fear – was much greater in my imagination, than in reality.

P.S. It is that way as an adult also; imagined fear looms larger than the actual experience of what we feared.