I don’t believe fear is the opposite to love
Love can hold fear in its embrace
It feels important to me that we don’t demonise fear,
But instead we normalise it
And ultimately,
Alchemise it
We welcome it to the table
We acknowledge its presence
We fully feel it
And I know that fear is in incredibly vulnerable feeling to feel
It’s also a very reasonable response to a lot of what we are facing right now
To be willing to feel our human fragility is a courageous thing
To feel fear is not weak, or “unspiritual” I dare say – it is absolutely necessary
Lest we deny the fearful parts of ourselves
The love they are seeking
Or perhaps what others would call compassion
Or loving awareness
To deny that we feel fear
Is to deny the flow of our emotions;
The wisdom they carry – what it is they want to reveal to us
Recently I’ve seen a lot of people fearing fear,
Being unwilling to admit they feel it,
Or worse – shaming fear
And those who feel it
And as soon as we tell ourselves: “I/they shouldn’t feel fear”
Shame smothers it
And gives the fear even more reason to hide from the presence of love
The relentless kind of love;
Infinite and fierce compassion
The mercy of the Mother
If there was ever a time to cultivate compassion,
It’s now.
For ourselves first and foremost
And for each other
So although I don’t believe fear is the opposite to love
I believe love and fear can co-exist
May we hold ourselves,
Our fearful parts
Our tender parts
And our vulnerable parts
With the utmost love
This is my prayer
