Ooooh! Scary!

This isn’t a Halloween in June kind of thing like Christmas in July, but this week’s topic is about a time when we were really scared.  If it has to do with one of these…

…you can bet I’m on the freaked out side.  I am typing really, really fast right now so that this scrolls to the next line and Mr. Slitherpants is out of my sight.  Oh.  Wait.  Can I call those terrifying creatures Mr. Slitherpants?  I mean, Slitherpants implies pants which means clothing which covers legs which snakes do not have.

Okay, I’m good now.  Can’t see him anymore.  But seriously, I am terrified of snakes.  And yes, my best Halloween costume was of Medusa where I carried a rubber snake-headed staff and wore a wig with fake snakes from the dollar store attached, but keep in mind, dear friends, I did not have to look at myself.

I know I’ve been scared.  I’ve had those heart-pounding moments where I am just sure something bad is about to happen, but since I am still above ground, I think the things that truly terrify me are my “What ifs?”  I’ve got the moment where I thought our plane might crash, but that’s a blog for another day (specifically August 6), but even then I don’t recall being nearly as frightened as I was when I was 5.  My little sister and I were walking in a field near our house and we nearly stepped on a gigantic orange snake.  We ran screaming from there, “Daddy!  Daddy!  Daddy!”

I had another snake encounter when I was 9 months pregnant and doing yard work.  Apparently I wasn’t scared enough because it was another week and a couple of rounds of Pitocin before that boy decided to come out.  Momentarily freaked?  Yes.  Scared?  Not really.

I generally avoid situations that put me in harm’s way.  I’ve experienced enough of that gut-wrenching, sweat-induced, heart-pounding feeling to know I don’t like it, even if it’s temporary.  Fear of something terrible happening to my children is the one thing that truly scares me more than anything else.  Just thinking about those possibilities frighten me to a place where I never want to go.  Kind of like the snake house at the zoo.