Often in life there are situations that confront me that I simply do not wish to look at. It used to be that my choice to ignore usually came from a belief that I might see the worst thing I could imagine. If I have the courage to look under the bed I can see that actually there is no ghost or monster there. Or perhaps I can see that the “monster” is a bit like me. When I’m willing to be the light and see the light, then there is no darkness.
If I ask my friend why I haven’t heard from him in a month I might learn that it’s not because of that last comment I made about his daughter, but instead that he’s worried about losing his job. As long as I’m afraid to look, my fear has a chance to ferment into hysteria, and that can feel intensely violent.
In his book TRAVELS, Michael Crichton writes, “We all can work ourselves into a hysterical panic over possibilities that we won’t look at. What if I have cancer? What if my kids are on drugs? What if I’m getting bald … And that hysteria always goes away the instant we are willing to hear the answer. Even if the answer is what we feared all along … Hysteria accompanies an unwillingness to look at what is really going on; it promotes an unwillingness to look, when actually it is not-looking that makes us afraid.”
Fear has one purpose, to get us to wake up to what a mistake it is to choose thoughts of separation from God, and from each other. Once we look at what we’re thinking, and examine whether or not it is real or a shadow, the hysteria dissipates and as Crichton points out, “the question becomes “What am I going to do about it?” With action comes relief and a sense of purpose.
Today you can be willing to look at the things that frighten you most and put an end to the building hysteria, an end to the violence of your own making. “I once was blind, but now I see.” In having the courage to look you become a leader in your own life.
Affirmation:
I AM willing to know the Truth that sets me free.
