Fear Is The Issue

“Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realized that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; but the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” ~ Plato

The other day my teaching partner, Dave and I were on the phone working on changes to the acting class we teach. During the conversation he told me that he had to redo an assignment for one of his Masters classes and that the instructor had added some extra work because she didn’t like one of the things he’d written for the assignment. My red flags went up and I said, “She’s punishing you because you wrote something she doesn’t agree with?” Dave said, “Yeah, well this isn’t the first time this has happened during this program.” 

I remembered teachers I worked with in high school complaining because some student had challenged their ideas, or conclusions about something and they punished them. I always felt that was wrong. Education is about expanding our minds, not conforming to one point of view. And as a teacher, I’m always looking to learn as much from my students as they from me.

The next day I was doing my lesson in Pam Grout’s book, The Course in Miracles Experiment, which was “I am determined to see,” which means we’re asked to see the truth in every situation. When I read that lesson, I understood. Perhaps what Dave wrote had unusual ideas that his instructor had never encountered before and it scared her. My next thought was, fear is at the heart of every conflict, addiction, self-sabotage, every unhappy thing that happens in the world.

I think we are raised on fear. Just look at the accepted ideas of how the world works. “It’s us against the world, don’t talk to strangers, there’s not enough to go around, we have to scratch and claw our way to the top, the one who dies with the most toys, wins, and so on.”

I’ve started to look at what I’m afraid of, and how it makes me do and say some hurtful things sometimes. We do the most damage when we feel threatened. But what I’m finally beginning to believe is that I am protected always. And because some part of me felt that I’m always taken care of, I’ve always had a roof over my head, food on the table, good friends and family members, even good relationships with my co-workers, and students. But I had to “see” those around me as my allies, not my enemies. 

It’s not that I haven’t had challenges. We all do. But I now understand that I chose those challenges so I could learn something vital about living here on this planet. I remind myself that in this moment, I’m okay. When I do that, the fear I’m feeling diminishes or goes away completely.

I’m going to keep working on letting go of my fears in the hopes that if I do, I’ll have a positive effect on those around me and it will cause a ripple affect that goes out into the world.

Thanks for reading. I hope you are well. 

Blessings,

Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2022

Lucinda is the author of The Space Between Time, an award finalist in the “Fiction: Fantasy” category of the 2017 Best Book Awards.

Have you ever experienced life shattering events? Yeah, most of us have. In The Space Between Time, Jenna Holden gets slammed by her fiancé walking out, her mother’s untimely death, and losing her job all in one week. But she receives unexpected help when she finds her three-times great-grandmother’s journals and begins the adventure of a lifetime.

The Space Between Time is available in all ebook formats at Smashwords and for Kindle at Amazon, or you can find the ebook at iBooks or Barnes and Noble. If you prefer a physical copy, you can find a print-on-demand version at Amazon. Stay tuned for news when the audiobook version is published.

Lucinda is also the host of Story-Power a podcast where she and her guests discuss their creative endeavors, and/or the stories that have changed their lives. It’s available here on Sage Woman Chronicles and on Apple, Google, and Spotify podcast apps. Please rate and leave a review. It helps people find me.