There is one particular obstacle that has handicapped every single person who has ever lived on this Earth.

What might that be?

It’s really nothing mysterious or anything new, it’s just plain old fear.

We all exist in the shadow of our fears. We have learned fear, we know fear and we are comfortable with it.

Fear is like a vine that has grown up with each and every one of us. The roots are deep and the tendrils extend far beyond what we could ever imagine.

As a person with a disability _ as a lover of untraditional, unpredictable, exotic things _ I have had many opportunities to recognize my fear and then face it with courage. In one sense, it’s scary, and in another sense, it’s quite exciting to me.

Nothing stays the same; things constantly change and shift.

And somehow, the discomfort of uprooting from what is so familiar to me can bring such richness into my life. It’s sort of like that cliche "No pain, no gain," right?

Our fears can be good if we can recognize them and learn something from them, but if we allow them to defeat us before we even begin, our fears can become pretty confining.

Fear that goes unchecked is kind of like a chain that attaches us to a metal pole. Unless we face the fear and find a way to detach ourselves from the hold it has on us, all we can really do is march in a little circle around the pole. Always moving but never going anywhere.

So, you see, if we allow it, fear will be the primary determinant of the choices we make in life. Anxiety will dictate our reactions to things that are new and unfamiliar to us. And all the while, our thoughts begin getting stiffer and stiffer with our apprehensions.

In essence, fear works alongside reason to prevent us from seeing the larger context in life. If you don’t believe that, just look around at people who have a noticeably narrower worldview than you. You will realize they have a lot more to be afraid of in their world than you do. The fear they have narrows their already-narrow focus and prevents them from accepting change or exploring the infinite possibilities.

The good news, though, is that there is a shift beginning to happen right in our local area.

More and more people are out there challenging their preconceived notions and expanding the borders of their worldview. There are more people rejecting the status quo and refusing to sit in the stagnating balance between fear and more fear.

I got a chance to see this shift beginning to happen firsthand earlier this month.

Hospice had put on this daylong conference on complementary and alternative therapies at the FoxCare Center. I went and, along with several other reiki masters, gave people an opportunity to experience the therapeutic benefits of the Japanese technique called reiki.

I was completely blown away after spending the day intermingling with the people who came to participate in all the various workshops and alternative and complementary medicine techniques.

I don’t often encounter people who are so open, unselfish and so tolerant of one another.

I was immediately befriended by several people there. Throughout the day, I got to talk to so many others who clearly were opening themselves up to unfamiliar territory as well.

I’m, of course, not just talking about their reactions toward me and my disability, either.

Everyone there seemed to have so willingly set aside their biases and their fears for an entire eight hours out of that particular day, in order to explore many things that were unfamiliar, or perhaps even counter-intuitive to their personal predilections.

Nobody who participated was expected to change their values and personal paradigms, they weren’t asked to join a group, or believe any certain way about anything, nor were they coerced to participate in anything they didn’t want to participate in.

The conference was truly a perfect opportunity to bring a great number of people from diverse backgrounds together, both practicioners and participants, to learn from one another.

That’s what we must continue working toward.

We must allow ourselves to fearlessly step outside of our own shells, face our vulnerabilities and open ourselves up to the possibilities.

We cannot have real intentional compassion for others until we feel completely comfortable and strong in who we are as individuals.

So it’s about time for us to begin exploring our own limitations so that we can be leaders, helping to guide others away from the handicap of fear and into the wholeness, healthiness and happiness that awaits us all right here in this life.

Kate Pavlacka, a graduate of the State University College at Oneonta, has been totally blind for about 10 years.