On Living Island, Mayor H.R. Pufnstuf vanquishes wicked witch Witchiepoo and all live happily ever after….. alas, if only things were that simple. In the boxes that we create for ourselves to live inside, I think that most people try to arrange things so that they are safe and warm and comfortable …. with nothing allowed inside that might hurt them and their loved ones. By boxes I don’t mean houses – rather the whole package that makes up our ‘world’ …. including our understandings and beliefs. I wrote briefly before about ‘paradigms’ – the beliefs that we have about ‘how things are’ that govern our very existence. Unexamined paradigms can be powerful drivers for how we live our lives – our ideas about ‘how things should be’ – for example how husbands and wives should behave towards each other, or what time to have dinner.
I had a conversation recently with someone who maintained that the world was so dangerous that they had to be constantly vigilant in order to protect themselves and their family from harm. When I asked them whether they could imagine what life would be like if they could let go of that fear they scoffed at me and called me an idealistic fool. Maybe those are 2 positions are at the ends of a dichotomy …. at one end being able to live a life unburdened by fear and at the other end being barricaded against the world.
Looking into that further – I can see that, in retrospect, there have been many things/actions in my life that have been fear driven – getting a ‘safe’ job so that I could pay my bills (fear – that I would finish up in poverty), or going to the gym when I didn’t feel like it (fear that I would not be physically able to do what I wanted to do). But – what else am I dong that is fear driven? And – how am I going to work out what I could usefully surrender …. so that I am open to allowing whatever is in my destiny to come to me?
I believe that the nature of our existence is a mystery that will eventually be revealed to us… and in the meantime to be able to identify what is driving me on the basis of a fear – and then let go of it – is in my best interest.
I Know, But .......! 