How many of us live in fear? I have a sense that many people live in fear but are not aware of it. Take my experience today for example. The weather was beautiful and so I decided to skip yoga and go for a walk by the lake instead. As I began walking down the path I noticed a person I knew walking with her grown son. We greeted one another and I mentioned how I appreciated the new viewing area, which was in the process of being built. Her son asked what had happened to the other one. Did the kids destroy it? He said. “No, I think it was the flood a year ago” I said. Why, I wondered, would he immediately blame the kids?
We walked on and came to the newly constructed deck over the lake. I took a photo for my instagram account. They then asked what I was doing and told me to be careful as there were so many hackers today. You will be hacked I was told.
I thought about the comment and although I realised it was to warn me, I felt sad that they hadn’t noticed and mentioned the way the mist hung on the lake, the ducks swimming close by, the changing colours of the trees. They may have seen all this, but their communication with me had focused on fear.
It saddened me that instead of noticing the beauty and experiencing joy they had found it necessary to focus on communicating their fear.
For me life is a gift. May I always see it this way and celebrate it every day.
Writing is something I really enjoy doing. I have always had a bit of a block putting my writing “out there” as I don’t think I write well. When I started to look at this self-criticism, I realized that a lot of it came from an English teacher I had at high school in England. I was taking Advanced level English and she had said I was the worst student she had ever had, not because I didn’t try, but because my spelling, grammar and ideas were, in her opinion, so weak. I passed the exam just to spite her but the sense of inadequacy still haunts me.
Heather Markgraf 