Where is there an opportunity this week to replace fear with love?

Querida Amiga,

This week is already feeling overwhelming and it has just started. I have been trying to limit my news consumption to retain some sanity in these volatile times. The news still finds me through various channels. I get lured in by a headline and by the time I make my way to the end of the article, I feel tension and anxiousness building in my body. My mind starts to wander thinking of all the horrors I have grown to know. Wondering how they will mutate to a more horrific embodiment of hate and greed...behaviors that are far from expressions of love.

The past week I have been pondering how many decisions are made from a root of fear. What a difference it would make to shift our collective thinking and action to spring from the life-sustaining source...love. We are all born with love inside of us. Our life experiences from the moment we leave the womb determine our understanding of that love and our ability to give and receive it. Love grows when relationships and environments are rich with reciprocity. I share my love with you and you do the same for me. That energy of abundance merges and expands to fill our souls and bodies. As we are filled and the love begins to radiate beyond us, the people and environments within reach are touched by the possibility of love. I see and feel this energy field so clearly when I close my eyes and think of our relationship and other connections in our lives.

As I look at the images that accompany the news feeds piercing my energy field, I don’t see radiating love. I see fear. When I read the words spewing from these fearful faces, I hear fear enveloped in hate. I am often curious about what the root of the fear is. Where did it originate? What fostered its growth? What is my role in reducing fear in our world to allow more space for love?

There are times I observe my actions or hear the words escaping me that reveal the fears I have living within me. There are moments when love evades me. A history of observing and experiencing fear in my own life has created a programmed response for what appears to be easier. My fear-based expressions are just as harmful to those around me as the person caught on video yelling racist expletives. To assume I am a more loving person than them is to give myself a pass to cultivate hate, as long as it is enveloped in smiles and niceties that can make someone feel better. 

If I want more love in this world and to open up news feeds full of words and actions sprung from seeds of love, I must plant those seeds within myself first. I must play in the soil to find the dry clumps of dirt that need to be massaged tenderly and saturated with life-giving water. As I commit to that work in my life, love will emerge and dissolve fear. 

We do not need to create more love. We need to return to the love within us.

Quiero saber de ti. Where is there an opportunity this week to replace fear with love? How will you reconnect with the love that lives inside of you?

Un abrazo,

Michelle