Lizzie hunt

A friend of mine is back in the country after some months away and is sorting out her house and her things. Even though her housekeeper was in charge while she was gone, and her room was shut and locked, something did manage to sneak in. And now, even as I write this, about two days after she returned, she has not yet been able to find the intruder and expel it. The creature that invaded her sanctum is a lizard, a messy character who left his scat around for her to find it and panic. For some funny reason she - like many others in her family (are phobias inherited?) - is deadly afraid of lizards; I have known her to shriek and stand on top of a large cedar chest to avoid being in close proximity to the space that one may have inhabited. And I have even been part of a great lizard hunt in her living room - she was on the aforementioned chest, her aunt, who was visiting, was on a sofa, while the housekeeper rushed hither and yon with a broom in one hand and a kitchen towel in the other. I stood there and giggled; not very useful, I know, but the best I could think of to do at that particular moment.

I am not afraid of lizards, but I do draw the line at spiders, worms and other creepy crawlies. the tale of my mother and I slaying a cockroach is almost legend in our family - we stood at one end of a vast living room and threw slippers at it. After we ran out of slippers and anything else that could possibly fling at the poor thing, it rolled over on its back and died, presumably from either boredom or hysterical laughter at our madness. Mother ran screaming away from the smallest cockroaches; I am not afraid of them, but I do not like them at all and would prefer to run rather than stand and shake hands...any one of the many hands it has.

What frightens me are moths and butterflies, most flying insects, in fact. Not because they are nasty in any way, but simply because if I flailed around in trying to avoid them, I could make contact with them, which could damage their fragile wings and bodies, which means that they would need to be killed or I would have to watch them dying. Yuck. I would rather run, screaming or squeaking, take my pick when the event arises.

Today there is a lot to be afraid of in our world. Apart from the obvious fears like earthquakes and bomb blasts, car crashes and murderous attacks, life is all a matter of trust. And trust is so easily betrayed, most often by the people you never expected to be nicknamed Ben, Ben Arnold. The fear really comes in when you become untrusting, when you will not accept, when you do not have the courage to see yourself and those around you for what they really are.

A lizard is a lizard is a lizard. It is what it is. And while my friend hunts to find her little pet, I giggle gently to myself and try and learn another lesson about fear and how to trust yourself not to be afraid.