Hi, everyone.
Like all of us on the planet at this time, I'm feeling sometimes a bit overwhelmed by how much fear and suffering there is on the planet.
I organized a fundraiser to help refugees coming to Quebec, where I live, and a woman from the village where I live came to the fundraiser and we started talking. She is German-Canadian and has friends and family in Germany. I asked her, "How is it now in Germany?" I asked this because so many refugees have flooded into Germany and really put a major stress on the communities and resources there.
She answered thoughtfully, saying that it is really polarized there right now. There are people opening their homes and their hearts to help the refugees. Then there are people who are really feeling fearful and terrorized by all of these changes happening in their country. Some of these people are lashing out with hateful and fearful actions or words. Especially since the terrorist attacks in Paris, the levels of fear are very high.
Being empathic, as so many are, I can feel so much of what is happening in the world. I can feel into the fear and the sense of being besieged by change and by the sheer mass of humanity on the move in search of a peaceful and prosperous life.
I ask myself, "How can I best respond to all of this fear?" There is a part of me that just wants to pretend that it isn't there. It feels so different and so unpleasant when I compare it to the love and joy that are my usual feeling.
Then I remember how I have responded to my own fear. For truly, humanity is us and we are humanity. We are the collective. This world is our living room. There is no 'other.'
So, in response to my own fear, my highest and best response has always been, as I've frequently mentioned in earlier posts in this blog, to witness it without judgment, to give it voice, to heed it. I tell the fear, "I see you. I hear you. You are allowed to exist." And so I see that all of this noise and chaos and clamour is so that we will see it. We will hear it.
I remember how awful my own fear has felt when it has overwhelmed me. It felt horrible. I see that the collective fears of humanity are now making themselves known - BIG TIME.
Witness. Observe with compassion. Hold unconditional love. Say, "I see you. I hear you. You are allowed to exist. I do not deny you. I do not resist you. But know this, deep fear and loathing, I will love the world and all of humanity anyway. I will even love you."
