[skep-ti-kuhl]  Show IPA

adjective

1. inclined to skepticism;  having doubt: a skeptical young woman.
2. showing doubt: a skeptical smile.
3. denying or questioning the tenets of a culture or religion: a skeptical approach to the nature of miracles.
I am typically credulous to a fault. I will accept at face value almost anything I am told, even in defiance of my other senses. At first blush this would make me seem a bit of a berk, but really, I started life learning to navigate the world primarily relying on auditory cues to tell me about my surroundings. To keep me safe in my half-blind state my parents and sister would speak to me of boundaries and warn me of danger. It would seem I haven’t quite recovered…
 
And yet, as time goes on, I have become less and less sure of things about which I used to feel fairly certain. And this is perhaps in my best interest, but I’m not sure what to do about it, when this newfound dubiousness wanders in and causes me to question things I know I oughtn’t.
 
I turn a wary eye on things I should simply accept, and undermine my well-considered attempts to serve my best interests with errant focus on philosophical statistics, social politics, and the physics of emotion.
 
And so I choose in this moment to practice skepticism’s opposite; faith. Not blindly for its own sake, but rather with the good evidence of reflected experience. And knowing I am surrounded by loving observers I choose faith along with a chorus of voices to keep me safe.