The challenge of fear.

Scarcity and Abundance

“Our feelings of scarcity become so chronic and habitual that they influence the way we approach major decisions in our lives. Confronted with important choices, we fear the wrong move will bring disaster, cutting us off even further from any possibility of care and abundance...But if we begin to let go of fear, we come to see that regardless of which path we choose, either one may lead us to care, to abundance, to God.”

                                      Wayne Muller (Legacy of the Heart)

Fear is the great bug-a-boo of our existence. Especially in this economy when we are attempting to recover from a close shave with Depression. Most people feel hemmed in and as though their options are limited. We're holding fast to jobs and pennies and stuff we may need if things get worse instead of better. In some ways, this is good. Getting back to our parents' (or grandparents) ethic of pay-as-you-go makes sense. They, after all, survived the great depression, and learned its hard lessons. But in some ways it further exacerbates our problems.

Some of us grew up without much in the way of material wealth. Our parents did not shower us with more than we needed and sometimes we felt deprived. We carried that sense of scarcity into our adult years even when there was no basis for it. I had a friend growing up whose parents owned two department stores in town. She had three closets full of clothes and shoes in every color. Her dresser was covered with make-up and jewelry. I was in awe of all her choices. Nowadays, I have three closets full of clothes I don't wear. Several times per year, I go through them, cull out and haul clothes to the thrift store. Keeping things I don't need is just silly, but that deprived girl I was is still afraid not to have extras 'just in case'.

Fear bleeds over into our everyday decisions. We end up making safe choices to keep fear at bay, increasing our sense of being deprived. It is not doing without that causes the feelings of scarcity, it is the fear itself. If we go through our days with fear as our foremost guide, we will always carry the feeling of not-enough-ness. We fear making a wrong decision, so we make no decision at all. It's a feedback loop to nowhere.

If we let go of fear, our feelings of scarcity will diminish. If we look about us and realize that we have things to share with others, we will begin to feel the abundance of life. Not only am I not deprived, but I have much to give. Whatever path we take will lead us to choices, and some of those choices will not 'grow corn' for us, but no choice is forever. We can turn around and make a different choice, take a different path. The only thing standing in our way is fear.

                                                   In the spirit,

                                                  Jane