What do you do with fear?

You know the expression Slaying your dragons? I would like to ask you to consider Loving your dragons.

I took my younger son to an indoor trampoline park yesterday. My dearest friend, her daughter, and the two of us were there for an hour.

One hour to transform fear into joy.

I was full of curiosity and excitement on my way there. Once we arrived and signed in and got access to the trampolines, I started feeling fear.

What about my bad knee? What if the kids hurt themselves? What if they bump into the little ones that are all around bouncing carefree? I kept feeling my knee injury from 20 years ago. Pictures of the hospital and the groaning recovery we're swirling in my mind. I had to stop myself from thinking and just focus on the moment.

I got on the trampolines and started bouncing around-gingerly, of course. My son was calling me out on being afraid and we teased and joked around, but that's not what moved me to open up.

It was the pure joy in his eyes. Just above him there was a silly banner on the wall that read FLYZONE. I thought to myself - I wanna fly! So I started trying out the jumps that my son was doing. He was teaching me how to land and get back up and go into the next jump. "Just let it happen Mom! Everything is going to be ok!" What perfect words of encouragement!

As I looked over at my dear friend, I realized that this joy of bouncing around has taken her over completely. She broke her hip years ago and has been through so much. And here she was carefree, laughing out loud, eyes glistening with tears of joy.

We built a bridge to childhood. And it was made of trampolines.

On the way home I was thinking.

What if we approach our fear with curiosity? What if we take small, inquisitive steps into them? Then take bigger ones as the hold of fear releases it's grip on our hearts. What if we go even further and love fear, welcome it as a marker in our lives for more learning?

We would have more joy.