Fear

I have always liked the idea that when a child is born, a mother and father are born at the same time. As those of you who are parents know, this changes you as a person in many ways. One aspect, at least for me, is that I have learned to fear things. Suddenly, with responsibility for these little beings, there is fear that something may happen to them, or to yourself as the caretaker. I am having many sleepless nights because of this at the moment (again, I have to think of my own mother...). I am worried about giving my children into the care of a "stranger" in the afternoons, when I start working in two weeks. I am worried about finding a new home for us in Brussels that will be safe for all of us, in particular in the years to come when our kids start traveling to and home from school alone. I am worried about a number of issues with my own health, which I usually wouldn't have thought about twice. I know that it is a healthy instinct to be alert, but it's important to stop spirally into anxiety. As a wise woman said last night, it's time to finally go and get a massage that I have a voucher for, and go back to yoga class. This morning this woman unfortunately realized she needs to shop, cook, go to the bank, buy some clothes for the kids...    
Ps Following the Arendt post from yesterday, read a similiar quote from yesterday - 60 years later - by Harvard President in Davos, who was introduced as "Woman President of Harvard" and retorted that she is "President of Harvard, not Woman President of Harvard".