Recently, I came across a tiny gecko on the floor. If it had not moved, I would not have been aware of its presence. It was so small, barely over an inch long. I could hardly recognize it from some rubbage on the floor. I said hello little friend and went about my business trying not to bother it. It crawled further into a corner; I suppose it was afraid of me. I proceeded to say, don’t worry friend, I won’t bother you. For a moment, the thought crossed my mind. What if he jumps on you? I looked down in the corner at it and said, “just don’t jump on me or we both might get hurt!”

I know my reactions to such stimuli, which usually result in an overreaction that involves me running around like a lunatic. I know many people who have had first row tickets to my crazy show. My old neighbors once asked me why I had been running all around the back yard, flopping my arms about wildly at nothing. They found my hysteria comical. It made more sense when I told them I was running from some angry bees. Here I thought it was just birds that had a problem. Fortunately, I have gotten somewhat of a handle on my fear of them and no longer respond to what I previously saw as a kill squad.

Many times the false alarm is a piece of fuzz or something irrelevant. Even when it turns out to be a bug, I try to slow my role and chill out. Still working on that part. It’s funny how some things cross our paths that aren’t really that big of a deal. However, our response is sometimes so ridiculous that it gets us into far worse trouble than had we reacted calmly. But the moment we sense fear, we look for the big red panic button.

At times it is like calling in fire trucks from all surrounding counties over a lit match. Overreaction is part of our nature. We are so fearful of pain and suffering that we go through significant effort to avoid it. As such, we sometimes create more trouble for ourselves in the process. If you find yourself suddenly with a reason to panic, take a step back to assess the severity of the situation. It could be that you are like me, ready to tear off running from an adversary that is not really there.