It's Palpable... the taste of fear

I had a conversation with a coworker one day.  He was relating how he felt when a very good friend of his was diagnosed with cancer.  He said the he was hit hard with the news and that he could taste it, kind of an antiseptic taste in the mouth.  He asked me if I knew what he was talking about.  I said yes, I did know.  It is such an odd thing to think of fear having a taste, but it does.  I thought of the times in my life that I tasted it.  When I was with my Father when he was diagnosed with Luekemia (I was sixteen years old), when my first born got lost in the Philadelphia Zoo, and when my youngest son came to us for help for addiction.  Those were the times it was palpable.

I think fear can be scarier when you cannot taste it.  The times when fear holds you back from moving forward and living the life you were meant to live.  Also when it keeps you from experiencing your fellow human beings.  Whether it is an experience or person we should not be fearful but choose to be fascinated.  Through fascination we ask questions and begin a discovery that leads to the familiar.  We realize how much more alike we are to what we feared was different.

What are your thoughts on fear?