“It’s not bad to be afraid?”

By DR. AK RANA

Life can turn pages, and every time you will find yourself there. “Is it bad to be afraid?” someone asked me last evening, was it the question or the person who was asking that I couldn’t say a single word. I stared the dark crimson sky while returning to my place trying to find my answer on the way. What is this emotion ‘being afraid’ without any reason to describe. Who do you think is more afraid, a person in grief or a person who has a reason to smile?

We are afraid when we start a journey and we are afraid when we end a journey. A new journey is filled with uncertainties, while ending a journey feels like abandoning a part of our life, that place of time where we are never returning again.

When we walk in a deserted land, we are afraid to secure a distant future; when we are in roses, we are afraid of that time where our garden might become a deserted land.

I discussed my puzzle with my dear neighbour, an old lady who is like that antique piece who lived through, even the darkest shades of times. She smiled and told me a story of a person who sounded very close to her.

That guy was so much troubled with his fears that he decided to lift them up from his life. All of the reasons that could make him afraid, he plucked them out of his life one by one and one day, he was free…

He was free and there was nothing that could make him feel afraid.

“And?” I asked.

“And that was an end.” She replied and continued after a sigh, “If you remove all those reasons that make you afraid, you are also removing all those reasons that make you happy, all those reasons that make you live and make this world glow with warmth and love.”

Even when we end a journey, we walk towards a new one but if we lift away all those reasons that bring fear to our life, that’s the real end.

Whenever we were afraid, weren’t we excited also? Weren’t we happy also? There was not a single emotion but a mix of all.

You are afraid when you have something to protect, if you don’t want to be afraid, you need to relieve yourself from that.

Only a lonely person in this world with no dreams or hopes can be truly fearless. But what a life that would be?

If we think in that aspect, aren’t we lucky to have something for which we can be afraid of!