The Relief of Understanding
The search felt longer than it probably was.
I kept glancing between the red mass and my screen, half convinced I’d look up and see it moving. When the results finally appeared, the tension in my chest loosened.
It was a fungus.
A strange one, yes. Rare. Dramatic. Showy in appearance.
But harmless.
I let out a small laugh — soft, shaky, and slightly embarrassed. Just minutes earlier, I’d been mentally planning to dig up the entire garden bed. Now I felt oddly humbled.
This alien-looking thing wasn’t threatening me at all.
It was simply existing.
Seeing the Garden Differently
As I went back to watering, I kept glancing at it. Something had shifted.
I started wondering how long it had been growing underground before deciding to show itself. How many processes were constantly unfolding beneath the surface while I rushed through my mornings without noticing.
The fear I felt earlier had already started giving way to curiosity.
And that’s when it hit me — this wasn’t really about the fungus.
The Familiar Pattern Beneath the Reaction
The way I reacted to that strange red shape mirrored how I’d reacted to plenty of other things in life.
A difficult conversation.
An unexpected change.
A feeling I couldn’t immediately explain.
Again and again, I’d let unfamiliarity turn into fear before I bothered to understand what I was actually facing.
It was uncomfortable to realize how quickly fear rushes in when knowledge hasn’t arrived yet.
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