The fear factor

Real Life Story- Fear factor

A young lady stood still. Well… as still as she could. Her whole body seemed to be shaking, especially her legs and knees. Her forearms were cramping, and she seemed to be squeezing the perspiration out of the Tightrope instructor's big hands as he stood behind her.

She could feel his presence behind her, and continually tested the security of his grip - just to make sure. They were standing on a platform with the tightrope in front of it. There was little comfort in the fact that she was blindfolded, and that she couldn't see how high she was from the ground. Her sight had been covered since she entered the arena, and she struggled to figure out how she got up there.

"Am I crazy?" she thought.
"Am I out of my mind to be trying to do this? What could I possibly learn from facing this fear?"

"I can't do this…" she whispered.

"Yes, you can." came the baritone voice behind her.
"Now slide your other foot up and place it in front of the other."

She did as she was told. Every fibre of her being wanted to turn around and grab onto the instructor. He sensed this in her body language and reassured her once more. "Don't worry, I'm here."

She was now on the wire! The only things separating her from certain death, were those two palms. Only her tiny fingertips prevented her from plummeting fatally towards the ground.

The instructor told her, "Now, another step."

And so it continued, step by step. It never got easier. This went on for an eternity until she was shocked to hear him say,
"Okay, stand still."

The perspiration was pouring off her now. She could feel it running down her back like tiny streams.

"Take off your blindfold." came the next instruction.

"I can't…" she whispered.
"I'll fall."

"No you won't, I'm here."

Her mind raced. How was her going to stop them from falling, after all they were standing on a tightrope!

The young lady's fingertips seemed cemented to those palms.

"You have to remove your fingers from my hands to take off the blindfold. Don't rush…"

Slowly she lifted the heavy finger tips from his palms and gingerly brought her hands up behind her head. Her fingers couldn't move! Finally she managed to pry the bond apart. As it fell away, the brightness of the light almost blinded her, and she wobbled - grasping for those hands. Sure enough they were there. The woman's eyes adjusted and focussed. What she saw wanted to make her cry and scream with relief, anger, humiliation, and joy.

There she was - three feet from the ground! On her left was someone ready to catch her if she fell that way. There was someone on her right side too. Then there was those familiar hands, reaching from behind her, holding her hands. She continued to stand still on the wire.

"I…I…don't understand!" she croaked, as the tears ran down her cheeks.

The instructor answered;

"You thought your greatest fear was of heights. Today you discovered that your greatest fear is to be alone."

"What you have learned is that, no matter how frightening the challenge is before you, you will conquer it with someone by your side."

"Also, your fears are often not grounded in fact, but more assumption and deceit. You thought you were high off the ground, but you weren't. Your fear was in fact unfounded.

You were blindfolded and your intellect and circumstance lied to you. They told you that you would fall." he continued,

"Your faith, and trust was in me not to let you fall. Not only that, although you were only three feet from the ground, I made sure that there was someone to catch you should you stumble and fall."