JUST A LITTLE LIGHT
By Dawn Phelps
“Afraid of Never Flying….”
A close friend and her husband, both grandparents, made an impromptu visit to see my husband and me. While at our house, the lady told us about a trip that she and her husband had taken out-of-state with their grown daughter and her husband, and their grandchildren.
Prior to their trip, she said that she, her husband, and the children’s parents discussed whether to drive or fly. She said that her husband, the grandpa, does not like to fly, and it was several hundred miles to drive to the destination.
After listening intently to the discussion, their seven-year-old granddaughter spoke up and promised her grandfather, “Grandpa, if you will fly with us, I will hold your hand!” So, the grandpa reluctantly agreed to fly.
On the day of the flight, the little granddaughter seated herself beside her grandpa on the plane. As the pilot revved the engines for takeoff, the little girl reached for her grandpa’s hand. She held his hand until the plane was safely in the air, then she let go.
When it was time for the plane to land, the little girl again reached for her grandpa’s hand. She held his hand tightly until the plane landed and came to its final stop. Despite Grandpa’s fear of flying, he and the family had safely flown!
That grandpa is not the only one who is afraid of flying. In fact, he is one of 25 million in the U.S. with aerophobia, the fear of flying. And after several recent air collisions and crashes, some of us may be a little reluctant to fly even if we do not have a fear of flying.
Some frightened fliers take medications for their anxieties and fly anyway. Others attend therapy to learn how to cope with their fears.
Some fears of flying are founded, some are not, and some are based on what ifs—“What if there is a storm?” or “What if the plane malfunctions and crashes?” Even if bad things do happen to us, we must try to go on.
Below is a thought-provoking quote from the book To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee and published in 1960. Atticus Finch, a fictitious character in the book, made the words famous.
“She was afraid of heights
but she was much more afraid of never flying.”
Life in general is filled with experiences that are happy and exciting and others that are challenging and scary. Out of necessity, many of us may have to deal with multiple challenges.
For example, after my husband died many years ago, I had to deal with being stranded due to a dead car battery, a flooded basement, and a hail-damaged roof—situations I would have never dreamed of having to deal with alone!
Similarly, I met a lady from a nearby small town not long after her husband had died. She told me that her husband seldom allowed her to drive during their married years. Rarely did she drive to the local store for groceries. Consequently, she lacked confidence in her driving skills.
One day she asked me if I thought she could drive in a larger town about fifty miles away. I told her I believed she could do it, and she found out she could drive there! A few months later, she proudly told me she had successfully driven out of state alone to see a friend!
Like the quote about being afraid of heights, her fear was about driving rather than flying. But necessity urged her to face her challenge and push through her fears so she could live more independently.
If you are facing a challenge, why not test your “wings?” You might find your “wings” are strong enough to carry you to places you would have never dreamed! So even if you are “afraid of heights,” dream a little, then spread your wings and fly!
