Sometimes it’s difficult not to see negative things around you, because sooner or later you find yourself in a situation that looks clearly negative, or as happened to me recently multiple situations that looked clearly negative. Suffering is an intrinsic part of life, not least because we are all born, age, get sick and die, process that are inherently more or less painful. Then there are the things and people we want but can’t have, no less the things and people we don’t want at all but have to put up with. The real problems begin when the idea that those “negative” things and people can be separated from the “positive” ones takes hold in your mind, and you imagine that if only you could do this everything would be hunky dory. And if that doesn’t work, then you try to at least keep the “negative” things and people at a distance where we feel that they won’t be able to harm us. That takes a great deal of energy, narrows or closes your heart and often doesn’t work either. The truth is, of course, that positive and negative, good and bad are all mixed up together and they always will be. I recently became more aware of how fear is the force driving the desire to avoid the negative: the fear of being hurt again. I am certainly not immune from any of these forms of thinking and often fall into them myself too. By the way, none of these thoughts are in any way new, in fact they’re as old as the world. Many other writers have said these things much better than I have, or will ever be able to. In spite of that I feel the need to communicate them to you today. Please take my advice and FEAR NOT!
