Fear & Hope

Daily Meditation 860–7/8/2024

A short DM for today.

We so often choose fearfulness over hopefulness. Why is that?

Fearfulness is negative oriented, often around loss, the past and a bit of the present and future. But generally, we fear losing things.

Hopefulness is positively oriented, often around gain, and is wholly within the now and future. You cannot have hope in the past.

“I sure hope I met the right spouse 10 years ago!” sure, you can have lines of thought like this, but this isn’t really hope — this is fear.

“I hope I saved enough money this year.”
“I hope I ate few enough calories last week.”
“I hope I was a good enough father to my kid as I send him off!”

These aren’t honestly hopes. They’re fears.

We must endeavor to be mindful of our feelings in the present moment so that we can best avoid sensations of fear. Fear overrides all else and devours the sense. It is like a slow dripdripdrip of water on concrete — even the concrete itself is dissolved over time…and our bodies and minds are certainly far weaker than concrete!

In closing — grab the reins and try to remain positive, hopeful. Be aware when you have fear and try to flip it over, seeing if there’s a…