The monsters in the closet never go away. You just learn to ignore them.
I was on the phone late last night with my friend Trudy. Our conversation came upon recent movies we had seen, and one of movies Trudy talked about was "Butterfly Effects," a thriller starring Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart. Halfway through her description of the plot I started getting the heebeejeebees. All of a sudden the doorway to my bedroom looked menacing and my imagination envisioned a psychotic killer tiptoeing through the darkness, right behind the corner, intent on raping and murdering me in my own home. The more I tried to concentrate on something else, the more my mind plagued me with outrageous scenarios I had seen in a series of horror movies over the years. Even turning my back to the door so I stared at the wall couldn't subside my anxiety, and when a light suddenly shone outside my window I started in terror. My eyes wide as a golf ball and my face lit in fear like a deer caught in headlights, I begged Trudy to stay on the phone with me until I felt secure again.

In life, we can never truly outgrow the demons that haunt us. Although we claim to have transcended beyond childish fears to become mature adults, I believe the things that always chided us in the darkness of our heart as children still remain. We've just become better at dealing with them - sometimes through ignorance, sometimes through dealing with them head on. The point is that those monsters are created from within; they are not a product of something outside ourselves. They may be triggered by our surrounding circumstances, but ultimately the things that bug us will always be unique to our souls.

Another lesson learned from this is that despite our attempts to build a grand fortress of accomplishments, our lives are as vulnerable as a house of cards. We can stack them as high as the Tower of Babylon, but with the snap of a finger it can all come tumbling down faster than humpty dumpty's wall.