March 12, 2015

  • Looking in the Hidey Hole

    Fear drives the animal to ground. The instinct is to make yourself small. To still the heart. Quiet the breath. Pray that the danger passes you by so that you may dash in the opposite direction or find safety in numbers. The world is a big place. The world contains all the joys and sorrows, pleasures and pains, the courageous and the cowardly. When we allow fear and dread to hem us in, the world becomes the confines of our hiding hole. The brave are depicted as standing tall on the pinnacle of a mountain. They gaze into the heavens, seeing beyond even the valley. The coward is curled in upon himself able to see only his own trembling hands. The difference? The mountain is there, the valley remains, the stars shine in their celestial orbits without regard to man. We are the ones limiting our world. We choose the vista.

    This is a little prose poem for the March 2015 Scavenger Hunt using the prompt: “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anais Nin. The question is whether you are standing on the mountain or curled in the hidey hole when faced with life...

Comments (10)

  • I like your visually descriptive (and accurate) prose poem better even than the original Anais Nin quote. :)

  • Gosh...this was amazing! I noticed this "make yourself small" instinct when our grand daughter was just a few months old, she was in the crib all cooing and happy, watching her fingers or something and I turned on the vacuum, she immediately got still and quiet as mouse. It reminded me of a fawn being still and quiet. I choose the mountain top!

  • This was good for me to read today ~

  • I was never a crusader except once--in high school andit was exciting. Then went to work and supported my family. lol

    • I think you are plenty brave - there are some who are afraid of their own shadows. I have a friend who is afraid of flying and has never been on a plane. I just wonder why she is afraid - having had no experience with it. Her retort is that she has never gone bungee jumping but she is still not going to do it...

  • I can't seem to stay in a hidey hole. Neither can our rattlesnakes, which are already out in force.

    • Some of us are better at facing the world than others. As for the snakes, well, one more reason not to relocate to the Southwest...

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