The elephant in the room...

...is actually a swine!

So...about 3 or so years ago I was crippled with the fear of the Avian flu. I blame it on my husband recounting an article in the Economist, then Oprah covering on her show and then me READING about the 1918 pandemic. I was certain that it was going to hit within that year and that all 'proverbial' hell would break loose. I couldn't stop talking about it and was warning everyone about it and I lost a lot of sleep over it. Fast forward to now. I am calm. I am appropriately concerned. I am making small plans to 'be informed and prepared' BUT for some reason, I now have given into the thought that there really is nothing I can do about it, and all the worrying in the world will not stop what will transpire when it does. It will SUCK big time if in fact it hits the world HARD, it will SUCK if my family is hit by this, it will SUCK if this reaches the epic proportions it could hit...BUT I don't know AT ALL if, when, how, what will happen so I plan to love what is right now and enjoy the moment. This new perspective can be linked to several things, one is my year of reading, coaching, writing, introspecting and becoming in tuned to what really is real and true RIGHT NOW. Another perspective is related to my fear of flying.... here is my story.

In 1995 my amount of traveling increased with my honeymoon, and then a project in New York (I lived in DC). At that same very point I started to become fearful of flying. Every hop, skip, jump, bing, bang, boom of the plane was interpreted by me as the plane going down. It was truly irrational and truly all consuming (while I flew). I couldn't help but talk about my fear, to make jokes about the crazy rituals I had, to tell my fear of flying to everyone who came in contact with me. I was definitely a fun 'party guest' and spent a lot of time making people see how 'foolishly afraid' I was. Then on one flight home from NYC an incident took place. Our plane was landing at Reagan National in DC and just before touching down, it gunned back up into the air. It turns out if we had landed we would have crossed paths with a plane taking off. Everyone on the plane with me who knew me was concerned about my psychological well being at that point....well funny enough...I was extremely calm and unphased by the incident. I HATED the full u-turn we had to make (banking still gets me sometimes) but really on the whole, I was doing well. It turns out that the thought of danger and the actual danger are not the same...the thoughts are worse, the reality is much more easy for me to take. I could see that the pilot knew what to do and did the right thing. That is not to say that it cured my fear, but it was an interesting data point for myself...curious that I was not freaked! So, back to this 'little piggy flu' problem. I might be experiencing the same thing here...it is here, it is real and I am willing to 'let go' and let whatever happen, happen and have faith that I will be as prepared as I can be to handle what comes my way (good or bad). In the meantime, I sure as heck am washing my hands, stocking my shelves, watching the news etc....just in case! Be safe!