braided vision drawing study, originally uploaded by bbmarie.

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of humankind as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer than out right exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing at all.” Helen Keller said this and she ought to know.

I think we work hard to make our selves feel safe, secure, and protected. We lock up our bike so it is not stolen while we visit the library. We put extra money away in a savings account for a rainy day. We pay for insurance in case we might have an expensive stay at the hospital. These are the sorts of things we do all the time with out question because it seems like common sense. I wonder what wonderful experiences we are cutting out of our life by the walls we erect around us.

Our family of eight, living in a modest size city in the midwest, has been with out a car for 5 years now. In not owning our own car we are forced to cooperate with our friends and neighbors for the times we just need a car to get some where or haul some thing back and forth. This helps cultivate our community. Not having a car, we are forced back to a human scale. We don’t shop at the big box store where they have the “big savings” because it is too far away. We shop at our neighborhood grocery store because we can walk there. Last summer when it was time for a family vacation we went to a camp ground that was close enough to ride our bikes to. We borrowed an extra bike trailer for our gear.

There was a time we were frightened if our car broke down and we couldn’t afford the repair. We didn’t have the imagination into a life with out a car for a few weeks. Now we have created a life that doesn’t need a car in the driveway all the time, just once in a while and it feels so much more human and free. What were we afraid of?

I have a hunch that if we could find a way to live past our fears of life falling apart around us, if we could just really begin to trust God to take care of us like He/She has promised, then maybe our lives would begin to take on the brilliant color of saints and poets. What are we waiting for?