I Am Happier To Know You

In the past, I’ve written about how our fear of loss and safety sabotages our lives by bringing to our doorsteps exactly what we fear most and how every unkind, compassionless action is merely an extension of a fear we carry as individuals or as a group.

As the New Year beckons with worldwide economic, ecological and humane crises’ on a scale that impacts every living being, our fears are being reflected back to us by events in our personal lives and by those around the world.

I wonder if individual fears of not having enough, of not being loveable, of lacking personal power are the primary sources of the collapse of the world’s economy. They’re a slice of the same global fear apple.

When we live with a focus of greed or a thirst for love that can never be sated, our energies are focused on how to get more of what we think we lack. In the process, we lose touch with the compassionate, generous parts of ourselves that are masked by acts that eschew our humanity.

So what if we make money from fake pharmaceuticals or products tainted by deadly fillers? So what if we take out loans we can never repay and our irresponsibility causes those who have worked their whole lives saving and living within their means lose everything? So what if by stealing from the poor or treating others as if they are less than human causes them to live on the street or in refugee camps? It’s just karma or devaluing others. We earned the right to our good life. They didn’t.

The devastation of our environment is perhaps another manifestation of greed. So what if polluting for profit takes away clean water from those who have little else, destroys ecosystems and creates global warming? If we make enough money, we delude ourselves into believing that we can buy whatever we need—forever and that our needs always come first.

Fear of personal and collective safety enables us to dehumanize our “enemies” so it is easier to righteously declare that we are exercising our right to protect ourselves when we kill them. “An eye for an eye” isn’t about “doing unto others as we would have them do unto us,” it’s about me first. After all, one of “them” is worth a hundred or a thousand of “us.”

We take no responsibility for how our collective racial, religious and socioeconomic fear-based actions co-create what we have come to fear most: rage that wears the mask of terrorism.

In this New Year of atrocious challenges, there are beautiful opportunities to heal not only ourselves, but the world as a whole. Everything we do, think and say has an impact on everyone around us and, by extension, the world.

When we see, face and heal our fears as individuals and human beings, we create energy that touches every corner of the world with love that empowers others to do the same.  Perhaps the most important slogan for 2009 is “Yes! We can stamp out fear.”

Copyright 2009 by Jeanne M. Eck. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint or to quote extensively from this article, please contact the author at iamhappiertoknowyou.com