Bewilderment

Bewilderment: to cause to lose one's bearings or to perplex or confuse especially by a complexity, variety, or multitude of objects or considerations; This is what Merriam Webster describes bewilderment as. I think Fanny Howe brought up bewilderment in her essay because with bewilderment comes new ideas and new ways or seeing things. "Lord, increase my bewilderment." This is the Muslim prayer Howe talks about in her essay. I think one would pray this because when you are in a bewildered state, you are forced to think about the situation in a different way. When you lose your bearings, you are forced to leave your comfort zone and think and act in ways in which will help you address your problems. Although if when one is lost or confused they may not see that they have another way out.  She talks about how weakness, fluidity, concealment, solitude can take over. We have all been in a situation where we were thrown a variety of things in our path and we just didn't quite know how to handle it. No longer are the feelings of courage, discipline, or conquest one our minds, like how Howe talks about, but the feelings or distress take over. Bewilderment can either enhance our actions and understandings or they can break us and make us feel more lost.