Category Archives: scared

Nov 18 2 comments
E. W. Howe, fear, scared

A Good Scare

Fear

A man in trouble walks to town to seek advise from the local wise sage.  He tells the wise sage that he is worried about dying, about leaving things undone in life.  The wise sage tells him to do the best he can, to believe in himself, to put a plan together and try to take action.  The man leaves the wise sage thinking that is what he is going to do.  He arrives home and promptly forgets the advice.

That evening he goes out for a walk before bed.  As he walks he is suddenly paralyzed with fear when a snake jumps out and almost bites him.  He recognizes it as one of the most poisonous snakes in his part of the country.  Just as it looks like it is about to strike again, an owl swoops down and grabs it.

The man goes home, sits down at his desk and writes out his plan.  The next morning he has the first 5 items on the list crossed off before dawn.

Drawing and story by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily

Quote by E. W. Howe, 1853-1937, American novelist and editor

Oct 29 0 comments
Anonymous, Halloween, scared

I Bet Living In a Nudist Colony

I don’t know, sounds like it could be pretty darn scary if you ask me!

Sorry for my absence yesterday, the graphics card on my computer went out and I didn’t get it together to hook up the scanner to my backup laptop until this morning. I hope you didn’t fall into the depths of despair without your napkin fix, but despair no more, they are back!

Drawing by Marty Coleman 

 

Oct 18 0 comments
actions, hiding, Horace Mann, money, scared

>If You Want To Know What A Man

>#3 in my week (more or less) long series of proverbs.

I can imagine account managers for stock brokerages really have a lot of insight into this, especially over the past 2 years.

It’s always a hard decision as to what to get mad about and what not to. I know my 401k went in the tank, I lost money. Here is the civilized question we should ask ourselves. What was I going to accomplish by getting angry or scared or worried or distraught? Now, let’s give us all permission to react to that civilized question. And let’s use this response if someone asks us this. The answer is: I WASN’T TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING! I was just emoting, venting, expressing, feeling, hormoning, freaking out, whatever.

Ok, now that all those that think every expression has to have a purpose are set straight, let’s now go on to admit that since those emotional expressions don’t actually have a purpose and we eventually do have to have one of those (purposes, that is) we should indeed put those feelings aside and figure out how the hell to dig ourselves out. Ah, a nice contradictory resolution to it all, whew! I was worried there for a moment that I had to have it all make sense! But I realized that since the gaining and losing of money (and most other things) don’t have a lot of sense to them that I didn’t have to make perfect sense either (even though I did if you think enough about it). The end.

Drawing by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily blog.

Marty’s photography (and other art) website

Quote is a New England proverb. For those of you outside the US, New England is in the northeast of the United States and comprises the six states north and east of New York.


May 26 0 comments
courage, faith, John Bingham, running, scared

The Miracle Isn’t

At some point in time you realize most people people don’t look at the
world the same way you do. When I was very young I had no idea what
a shy person was or a worried person, or a scared person. I thought
most people were like me. I wasn’t afraid, I wasn’t worried and I wasn’t
shy. I was excited about trying new things, exploring vacant lots, riding
my bike to the town next door, swim in the surf, or something like that.

Eventually life gave me lessons and I learned about being worried and
scared and shy, but I still didn’t know that for some people it was something
they carried with them all the time. The first time I really understood
how fear ruled some people’s lives was when I started teaching drawing.
Some students were just PETRIFIED of taking the class, petrified of failing,
of not being able to learn, of looking stupid. The fear list always goes on and on.

Obviously, if they were in my class they had already taken the first step.
They had begun. They now had help. They had direction, encouragement,
progress to see. They all finished the class, they all were able to draw much
better than when they came in. None of them were made fun of, none were
embarrassed, none were left behind.

If you are one who is fearful of things, worried or shy, then get yourself into a
group or class. Get into a running group, or a reading, bird-watching, rock and roll,
dancing, skydiving, geneology, swimming, theatre, or something else.
Just take the first step, the rest will take care of itself. Don’t stay home alone,
don’t wish it were different.

Go, take the step.

 


Oct 17 0 comments
fear, scared, worry

>Scared

>One of my art heroes has always been Henri Matisse because of his ability to draw expression with the minimal of line. I was attempting that with this napkin.
I am not sure why I drew it on the particular day I did long ago, but I hope I didn’t scare my daughters when they found it in their lunch later that day!

While I am not an absolute believer in the idea that ‘it’s all small stuff’ so we shouldn’t worry about anything, I do believe we worry a great deal about stuff that really doesn’t make that big a difference.

Scared

I often wonder why that is. Why do we obsess about how clean a floor is, when we know that one little bit of dust isn’t going to hurt us or anyone? Why do we worry about our sons and daughters hair or clothing style as if that is the same as character? Why are some so afraid of going somewhere or doing something we haven’t done before that they are paralyzed into inaction? Where did that fear originate? Who told us long ago to fear that? Who gave us the message that we would fail? Who told us that we should avoid failure at all cost?

I have a number of complaints about my upbringing and some of the stuff my parents did or did not do. But one thing I am very grateful for is that neither of them ever gave me the message of fear about life and what happens in it.

I guess it just comes down to faith. I don’t mean faith in God, I mean faith that it will all work out. That losing a job will mean something new and different and a new opportunity. That moving to a new location will mean new land, new friends, new nature, new buildings and new activities. That moving on from a relationship will mean new relationships, new growth, new feelings.

So, as the song says ‘Don’t worry, be happy’. It will work out as it is suppose to.


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