Fear and Loathing

It seems that our lives are continually in a state of trying to balance our hopes and our fears. And for many it seems that the fear overtakes the hope and then all hell breaks loose. Anxiety, depression, crabbiness, woefullness take root and before you know it life is not being seen through rose coloured glasses. So many these days have good reasons to fear…many are unemployed, many are living with chronic diseases, many are invested in the stock market and for all of who live in the Great White North…we have overwhelming fear that our fearless leader Stephen Harper will not only get re-elected but re-elected with a majority!!!Fear is debilitating, it can cause us to isolate ourselves, it can limit our ability to take action, and it can effect our health and our relationships in not so good ways. If you get right down to it fear lessens our quality of life and in many ways prevents us from fully living or from living to our full potential.The funny thing about fear is in many cases we have more things to worry about as a result of us worrying about our fears…in many cases many of things that we worry will happen come about because we were so fearful. Afraid that others think you are a bitch? Well just be a whiny no fun nag and sure enough they will be right. It is strange how many of the things we don’t want to happen….happen because we were so afraid they would.Another funny thing about fear is that even though we are not happy living the way we are… in many cases we just can’t bring about the courage to make the changes necessary to get out of the fearful rut we are in…and here again we Canadians are perfect examples…the majority of us can’t stand Mr. Harper and his underlings but we are just too scared to vote for positive change so the best we do is give him a minority government and hope he doesn’t get too carried away with the limited power that he does have…but of course nobody told him he only has limited power…or maybe they did and he just ignored them.Perhaps the most insidious effects of fear is the amount it zaps our energy. Fear takes a lot of energy to perpetuate. A lot of times it just takes too much energy to overcome our fears so we just let one of those stupid hateful emails slide into the trash instead of replying to all and addressing the misinformation. Fear allows us to see or hear violence or abuse happening and just turn away. Fear prevents us from making friends of those who are sick, or poor or of another race.So how does one go about looking fear in the eye when in many cases they are perfectly justified to be fearful? Pharmaceuticals? A dram or two or three of the gift of the gods? Having a shoulder to lean on? How’s about having a safe haven to call your home? Today we were so very lucky to be invited to the grand opening of the newest housing development. Thirty three families now have a safe place to call home. And the residents are some of society’s most vulnerable…women, children, disabled, elderly all living in poverty but now all living in a clean, new, secure facility. All now had a little less to worry about and with not having to worry about violence against them or others around them or affordable accommodations they can now use the energy to go forward and work on healing themselves or educating themselves so that they live up to their full potential.Isn’t that what it is all about? living to your full potential. This is the role of government to help its citizens…unfortunately we here in Canada are ruled by a governing party that rules by pettiness, fear and division. Well today we not only sent away our memberships to the Green Party but we volunteered to become part machine that works on getting a candidate elected that will work towards fulfilling our potential in a positive way.