When you tell someone that you fell into a Christmas tree at a New Year’s Eve party, there is always a pause. Sometimes, a long one. Inevitably, a question pops out. And that’s when things get interesting.

Often what keeps us stuck is our stubbornness in maintaining our grip on something, to blame something else, to blame someone else, to blame what we cling to so tightly. But so much can happen when we choose to let go and live with our hand open.   

In her poem “Hello, Fear,” Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer imagines what might be one of storytelling’s most unique metaphors for this unpleasant emotion: being hit by a bus.

A most helpful person came to me when struggling with the fear of starting my own business. His name: Indiana Jones.