Today is Mother-Talk’s Fearless Friday. I had actually forgotten all about it (I’m too busy to remember anything more than to wipe my butt lately) but as I was in the tub reading “Protecting the Gift” I remembered.

I’ve always thought of myself as a fairly fearless woman. The only things I’m really afraid of are intangible. Not snakes, not spiders, not eating alone in a restaurant. ‘ll bungee, I’ll skydive, I’ll run alone at night. (At least I would before I met my lovingly protective husband and he put the kibosh on that). But I am afraid. I’m afraid of someone I love getting hurt. And this, it turns out, is a very good thing.

De Becker talks about the “wild brain.” The one that gives us our instinct – the feelings that come before we start to over-think. It was built generations before the “logic brain” that people so revere today. Logic’s great, but it’s not what keeps us safe. In my classroom, I teach the kids about “tummy feelings” – those gut reactions that tell you something’s not right. It might be someone being mean to someone else, or a feeling about another person you just don’t trust. These are the same feelings that De Becker says we MUST listen to. Fear, he says, is a gift given to us in order to protect ourselves and, more importantly, our children.

I don’t feel like I can do this book justice in the short nap time I have to write about it. I can tell you that if you’re pregnant or have children from birth to 40, YOU HAVE TO READ IT. It should be required reading for anyone planning to procreate. It’s just that amazing. If I could afford it, I’d donate a copy to every new mom before they left the hospital (or send it with their midwife to their home water birth – whatever).

So, fearless?

Not me.

I’m proud of my fear.

I’m a mama mammal and I’m equipped to do whatever it takes to protect my baby.

And so are you. Listen to those fears. To those nagging thoughts and questions that pop into your head. Don’t deny them. Fear is a gift.