‘Danger is real, but fear is a choice‘
These were the words of Will Smith’s
character in the movie ‘After Earth’. It got me thinking about how true
it is and how it affects our everyday lives. An incident that occurred
came to my mind. I would refer to the person involved as Mr. X.
About two months ago, Mr. X engraved the
tomb of his four years old child who passed away sometime in the middle
of the year. He went to inspect the engraving one afternoon. He decided
to take pictures to show to family and friends. He captured photos and
went home and rested. Later at night he decided to go through the
pictures, and was shocked to see that all the pictures had very dark
backgrounds, since it was on a bright sunny afternoon he took the
photos. On closer look, the ghost of a young girl was seen hovering
behind the tomb in all the pictures, especially very distinctly in one,
which had the darkest background. Mr. X couldn’t sleep that night.
He came to work the next day and showed
us all. People were bringing up theories, one of which stated that the
girl probably had a message to pass across so he had to go figure it
out. Another said his son probably knew the girl while alive and that
she had died too so was just playing around her friend’s grave. Only one
person kept hammering that it was just the devil’s ploy to make us
doubt the word of God. Mr. X planned to go show his pastors the pictures
so they could decipher whatever message was being passed across or
whatever the girl symbolized.
I was terrified. I had never believed in
the stories that ghosts could be seen walking around, and having the
evidence right in front of me seemed scary. The image of the girl with
the ayamatanga dangling braids, stuck in my head. I got home
that evening and was scared to sleep in the dark. The next night was
even worse. I could swear that in the midnight, she was in the room and
tried touching me until I screamed ‘Jesus’. If it was a dream or real,
then I could never tell, all I know was that it happened and I was
freaked out. For the following nights to come, I never slept without
sprinkling holy water all over the room, and rubbing olive oil over my
forehead, for protection. After a week, other things were happening in
my life and I forgot the story of the picture ghost and then never had a
cause to be afraid at nights again.
A month and two weeks later, we were working in the office as usual, when Mr. X came in and went all, ‘yea
do you guys remember those pictures of my son’s tomb, where a ghost was
appearing in all? Well, yesterday when I was taking photos at home, the
pictures were all having dark backgrounds and the ghost was appearing
in them, so my older son took a look and saw that the camera had been on
ghost mode along, thus the background and creepy girl‘.
You can imagine the look on my face and
thoughts in my head. I went on laughing for a while, even as he went on
to say how some pastors had talked about holding paid special prayers
sessions so the ghost could stop tormenting the boy’s graveside. I was
thinking about how much power fear could have over us once we let it.
All we have to do is believe something, and that is it. It controls us
and all we do, while it is still in our heads. I was amazed at how
terrified I was over something unreal, and at the same time, made a note
to be more careful in future, the things I let myself fear.
Because fear is like cancer…the more you feed it,the more it grows till you are left paralysed! It affects confidence and clouds your joy! Making you a prisoner of your own mind.
Because fear is like cancer…the more you feed it,the more it grows till you are left paralysed! It affects confidence and clouds your joy! Making you a prisoner of your own mind.
Photo Credit: 123rf.com
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