I think that the universe works in a very obvious way, one that is not as “mysterious” as the oft used quote suggests. Last night I watched a video presentation from TED on the subject of fear, and then today in church the sermon was on fear again. Is this just coincidence?  I truly believe that when subjects resonate with our souls, we attract more of the same ideas at the same frequency.

The TED presentation essentially said that fear is really our imagination on overdrive, exploring all of the worst-case scenarios of any situation, sometimes overriding our practical intuition and assessments of a situation, to our detriment. Fear is the equivalent of story-telling, and depending upon who we are, we can create anxiety and anticipation that is infinitely greater than reality and create dis-ease for ourselves—unnecessarily.

And with today’s sermon, fear was the catalyst for Kind Herod and his many decisions, including the killing of his wife and children and the deliverance of Jesus to the crowd for his execution. In this instance, it is fear that gets in the way of our compassion and our ability to see and understand God. It is necessary to step back and acknowledge the unknown, often the unseen, and to let these things into our lives unconditionally. This goes for people who are different than us, events that unfold differently than we plan, or just about anything that might give us cause to be judgmental.

So, it is with these two examples that I suggest that many of us operate out of fear, fear from the possibility of rejection, scarcity, jealousy, death, and frankly, of living fully and unfettered.  We create fantastic stories and possibilities of “what if’s” instead of just being present and being happy. The famous Indian spiritual teacher Shri Shri Ravi Shankar rightfully says: “A poor person celebrates the New Year once a year. A rich person celebrates each day. But the richest person celebrates every moment!” 

Don’t live in fear, celebrate every moment and be present!