Do Not Feed

Not so long ago, I experienced what was to me a baffling illness. I can describe it more readily by what it wasn't than by what it was. There was no fever, sweats, sniffles or cough. There was no purging from either upper or lower orifice. It was a very, very brief wash of.... something. And that was the baffling part.

So in today's TMI culture, I could have rushed to the computer and typed in the 'symptoms.' My experience doing that is very unclear and over-the-top number of responses. What happens when I begin to read those responses? Fear sets in.

Don't get me wrong. I believe in being informed and in utilizing the 'information highway' to the best of my ability. But even WebMD requires accurate and thorough information from me. Then it spits out information according to a logarithm. No interaction, no questions, no awareness of my previous health history. The information I gain needs to be offset with the human interface. At least it does for me, so I don't feed my fears.

There's a lot of fear on the loose out there. Every request for a campaign donation is laced with fear of 'them' or the other side's policies. Almost every news story on the evening news overwhelms us with how bad things are. For the past several years, I've chosen not to watch TV news. I don't care for the atmosphere of fear it breeds. I continue to work on taking responsibility for my fears and the ripple of fear they cause in the world. It makes my personal world a better, safer, saner, happier place to live.

What feeds your fears? What do you fear? How do you feed the fears of those around you? How can you influence others to release the fears and let love and acceptance flow in? Do you want to live in a fearful world or a loving one?