Moving through Fear

It feels as though there is a lot of talk these days about Fear. People come into my studio each day and share their concerns about the future. Personally, I've tried to limit my access to NPR, FaceBook, and other places where I hear the words of fear in abundance. For many, we are living in a scary time. No one is quite sure what is going to happen next.

That's life, isn't it?

My yogi friends and spiritual sisters talk about choosing love. Choosing love over fear. I want this so much to be the center of my life. And it is so hard.

I want to share a story that happened to me this week.

Monday morning, I get an email with the subject line: "Very Important Message from School Superintendant". Hmm. 

The email proceeds to share that there has been a "vague threat" on my kids' schools. The police department has investigated and the superintendant feels that there is no reason to close school for the day.

I start to feel the twinge of a pit forming in my stomach.

"Well, I don't like that," I said to my husband as I recited the email to him across the kitchen table. My kids had already gotten on the bus by the time I read the email. They were off.

He smiled at me from across the table.

"No one likes that. No one wants something bad to happen."

His statement is accurate, of course. We all suffer, we all want to be relieved of our suffering. Hearing him say the words - so simple - helped me to realize that others are probably feeling exactly the way that I am feeling in this moment.

Fear.

I thought for a moment about picking them up. I listened to my body and wondered if what I was feeling was intuition (really, a premonition) or if I was simply afraid. Terrified. In the moment, without thinking that I was choosing love, my body did it for me.

I could image my moments with them this morning as we were getting ready. I replayed our interactions together - we had had a great morning. We laughed, we said I Love You, we held each other. We were in the moment.

And here I was now - not in the moment.