{"id":14912,"date":"2018-10-29T22:31:16","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T00:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nearariver.com\/?p=14912"},"modified":"2026-09-10T11:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T15:23:09","slug":"fear-three-near-a-river-bj-rae-eagle-encouraging-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bobbiejrae.com\/nearariver\/fear-three-near-a-river-bj-rae-eagle-encouraging-words\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Fear?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Franklin D. Roosevelt said, \u201cThe only thing we have to fear is fear itself\u201d. I learned many years ago that he was right.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"near<\/p>\n

There is no fear like the nighttime fears of a child, and mine were no\u00a0exception to this rule.<\/p>\n

I lay in bed, awake and trembling, most of the night.<\/p>\n

Every night, my older brother lovingly tucked me into my crib-sized toddler bed. He covered me with my white sheets and pink blankets, tucking them closely around my body to keep me warm.\u00a0 Then he hugged me and told me he loved me and walked to the double bed he shared with my younger sister.<\/p>\n

He always fell asleep quickly but I never did. For two reasons.<\/p>\n

First, he snored. He made a loud, gasping, violent nasal sound all night long.\u00a0 But even though his snoring kept me awake most of every night, it was a comfort because it continually reminded me of his presence in the bedroom we shared.<\/p>\n

Second, they<\/em> were there.\u00a0 Under my bed. I imagined how they must look.\u00a0 They were green, like the Hulk, a character I had seen in my brother\u2019s comic books. Their green matted hair covered their skin from the top of their skulls to their tails to the tips of their toes. But they were uglier than the Hulk.\u00a0 They were skinny with bony fingers and glowing skin and they terrified me.<\/p>\n

I felt them tickling my back and my legs through my thin mattress.\u00a0 When they did this, I began to tremble more and then I wrapped the covers over my head and around my body so tightly that I could not move and could hardly breathe.<\/p>\n

I lay there, listening to the raucous sound of my brother\u2019s snoring and did my best to not let them<\/em> know I was terrified.<\/p>\n

In my childish mind, I thought that they would come out from under my bed and eat me alive if they knew how much I feared them.\u00a0 Conversely, I believed that if they thought I did not fear them, they might go away.<\/p>\n

When I ignored their tickling me through my mattress, they became more aggressive.\u00a0 Then they ran their ugly scary fingers and toes up and down my body, trying to scratch my skin.<\/p>\n

When I ignored this behavior of the monsters under my bed, they resorted to blowing air biscuits.\u00a0 They made sounds like \u201cSSSSSSSSS\u201d when they did this. \u00a0These sounds went on for what seemed like forever. How monsters small enough to fit under my bed could have this much gas inside their bodies I could never figure out.<\/p>\n

Did you know what a monster air biscuit smells like?\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0A monster air biscuit smells like a combination of rotten barf, dead body skunk smell, and old beer all mixed together and simmered for about ten years.<\/p>\n

When the monsters under my bed released their air biscuits, I had to take my head out of the covers for fresh air.\u00a0 The only problem was, the air was not so fresh there either.\u00a0 There was no escaping the wretched nauseating smell.<\/p>\n

The monsters under my bed were very mean and stinky. They obviously hated the fact that I was sleeping on top of them.\u00a0So every night they caused me to lay in bed feeling terrified and nauseous.<\/p>\n

My preschool teacher had noticed that I tried to find a corner to sleep in all day long every day of preschool. So after many months of noticing this behavior, she finally told my Mother.<\/p>\n

Mother responded in her usual way, which was to yell at me and try to spank me all the way home in the car.\u00a0 When we got home, I jumped out of the car and ran to my hiding spot in the back of my closet and stayed there for hours, pondering what I could do to make the monsters under my bed find a new home.<\/p>\n

I knew I could not tell my Mother why I was not sleeping, that she would just spank me until she thought she had beaten my craziness out of my body. I thought about telling Grandma, because Grandma always knew what to do, even with tricky problems like this one.\u00a0 But I would not see Grandma until the weekend and I had to get some sleep tonight.\u00a0 The only other person left was my brother.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrady, I have a big<\/em> problem,\u201d I told him when I finally emerged from my hiding spot.<\/p>\n

He replied, \u201cI know that Mother is mad at you.\u00a0 What did you do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing! \u00a0But every night I feel so scared that I cannot sleep.\u00a0 So all day in preschool I find a corner and take a nap.\u00a0 The teacher told Mother today and Mother got really <\/em>mad at me\u00a0<\/em>for some reason. \u00a0I want to not be scared at night anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you afraid of? Maddi and I are in the room with you all night long.\u00a0 We sleep well every night.\u00a0 What scares you so much?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are monsters under my bed. They tickle my back through my mattress and scrape my back and then they blow air biscuits and stink me out of my bed.\u201d<\/p>\n

He smiled with understanding.\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s try to scare the monsters.\u00a0 Come on.\u00a0 Kneel beside your bed with me,\u201d he said as he grabbed his flashlight.<\/p>\n

I thought he was very brave as he got on his belly next to my bed and encouraged me to do the same thing.<\/p>\n

Then he actually shined the flashlight under my bed.\u00a0 You would never guess what we saw.\u00a0 We saw candy wrappers and dust bunnies and a few dead cockroaches.\u00a0 We also saw bits of plastic that had fallen off of the frayed tears and distorted curves and bends in my mattress that was obviously falling apart.\u00a0 But NO monsters!<\/p>\n

Brady did not laugh at me when we found no monsters.\u00a0 He just lay there on his belly next to me, looking under my bed and scratching his head, trying to find a way to eliminate the effect of the monster fingers and toes scratching me through my mattress.<\/p>\n

Then he went to the hall closet and brought out a thick green blanket with plenty of stuffing.\u00a0 This blanket was just big enough to fit on the top of my mattress when we folded it over four times.\u00a0 Then he removed all the covers on my bed and put this blanket on top of my mattress and made my bed again.<\/p>\n

He promised me I would not feel the tickling or the scratching of the monsters anymore.<\/p>\n

So I asked him about the monsters’ air biscuits, how I could avoid smelling those.\u00a0 Those biscuits smelled so bad that they could probably wake up my mother after she had taken too many sleeping pills or wake the dead in the cemetery.<\/p>\n

He laughed and said those were not monster air biscuits, that my younger sister Maddi was made that stench when she passed gas.\u00a0 Her gas had awakened him many a night since he shares a bed with her.<\/p>\n

Well, that night, Brady tucked me in as usual.\u00a0 And I did not feel the monster fingers and toes anymore.\u00a0 The monsters had finally moved away to scare a different little kid. The only thing that woke me up was Maddi\u2019s gas.<\/p>\n

Brady\u2019s blanket had gotten rid of the monsters under my bed.\u00a0 And Brady himself got rid of my fear.\u00a0 That night he taught me that fear was just a lack of understanding about something.<\/p>\n

Now that I understand what fear really is about, I no longer fear anything.<\/p>\n

Sadly, my brother Brad is dead. I will always miss him, but I will never fear anything again.<\/p>\n

So the next time you feel fearful, just remember what President Roosevelt said about fear.\u00a0 Then try to understand what is making you feel fearful.<\/p>\n

Trust me, this really works.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Let the\u00a0encouraging words<\/a>\u00a0in these\u00a0near a river<\/a>\u00a0posts help you<\/h4>\n

soar like an\u00a0eagle<\/a>\u00a0above life\u2019s storms.<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Please help me with something important…<\/a><\/h4>\n

Always F<\/strong><\/em>ace E<\/strong><\/em>verything A<\/strong><\/em>nd R<\/strong><\/em>ise!<\/a><\/h4>\n

Every child has rights, too!<\/a><\/h4>\n

Stay warm this winter.<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Franklin D. Roosevelt said, \u201cThe only thing we have to fear is fear itself\u201d. I learned many years ago that he was right. There is no fear like the nighttime fears of a child, and mine were no\u00a0exception to this Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,356],"tags":[1588,77,1271,1269,1328,1334,1270,1329,1337,1714,1332,1321,12,1331,1330,1320,1273,1322,1302,1274,1323,1325,1326,1324,19,1275,1319,1318,716,3013,285,8373,1327,1336,1335,1268,8372,1333,297,8374,1299],"class_list":["post-14912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-calming-anxiety-near-river-bj-rae","tag-common-core-eagle-reading-book","tag-bj-rae","tag-books-for-children","tag-books-for-kids","tag-child-eagle-reading-book","tag-childrens-book","tag-childrens-books","tag-childrens-eagle-reading-book","tag-childrens-reading-book","tag-common-core-book","tag-common-core-reading-book","tag-core-reading-book","tag-eagle","tag-eagle-book-for-child","tag-eagle-child-book","tag-eagle-children-book","tag-eagle-childrens-book","tag-eagle-core-reading-book","tag-eagle-kid-book","tag-eagle-kids-book","tag-eagle-reading-book","tag-eagle-reading-book-for-child","tag-eagle-reading-book-for-children","tag-eagle-reading-book-for-kids","tag-encouragement","tag-encouraging","tag-encouraging-childrens-book","tag-encouraging-kids-book","tag-encouraging-words","tag-face-your-fears","tag-fear","tag-franklin-d-roosevelt","tag-kid-eagle-reading-book","tag-kid-reading-book","tag-kids-book","tag-kids-books","tag-overcome-fear","tag-reading-book","tag-soar-like-an-eagle","tag-what-is-fear","tag-words-of-encouragement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobbiejrae.com\/nearariver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobbiejrae.com\/nearariver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobbiejrae.com\/nearariver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobbiejrae.com\/nearariver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobbiejrae.com\/nearariver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14912"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/bobbiejrae.com\/nearariver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21356,"href":"https:\/\/bobbiejrae.com\/nearariver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14912\/revisions\/21356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobbiejrae.com\/nearariver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobbiejrae.com\/nearariver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobbiejrae.com\/nearariver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}