I don't know when humans start developing the concept of fear and how it all begins. Does it happen after a few bumps and accidents and bad experiences? Is it all about personality? Now, at a very respectable age, i don't think i will do anything foolhardy, like bungy jumping or driving off into the wilderness with no preparation or knowing where the next petrol kioks were. If you asked me the same questions a decade ago, i would have jumped at the chance to do these foolhardy things in the name of adventure. the thought that i might die, or injure myself in a big way never occured to me and this risk taking behaviour, or fearlessnes is now evident in the little one. i've been bringing her swimming every week and not once does she approach the water gingerly or with some sense of self-preservation, unlike her older cousin who "tests water" first. nope, not maeve. she jumps in with wild abandonment each time, expecting to somehow bob to the top each time. another favourite activity is hurling herself at me, expecting me to always catch her, whether at ground level, or from a height. how she can have such a lack of fear, or complete faith in me, i don't understand. what if i don't catch her? what if i can't scoop her out of the water fast enough? So far, these thoughts don't cross her mind. To her, there is nothing to fear as mummy will always be there, like magic. It warms my heart but the magnitude of such a responsibility scares me. I hope i'll always be there to catch her when she falls. i hope i'll always be the cushion, the trampoline, the safety net. but i know that she will scrape her knee one day, she will knock her little head, she will bruise her heart. i hope when that day comes, i can still be there to catch her.