Ever watch a little kid play "Hide-n-Seek?" She will stand in the middle of the room, place her hands over her eyes and stand very still; the logic is if she can't see you then you can't see her.
Last year as the pandemic raged (...sigh it really has not quieted down....) I stopped my subscription to the daily newspaper and quit listneing to NPR. I chose not to read nor to hear the news. It was scary. No one definitively knew anything. I figured if I didn't know anything, I was OK with that and could continue merrily and blissfully unaware.
Fires burning the western United States, Louisiana with another hurricane and hundreds without power in hundred degree weather, drought in Africa, Afghanistan lost to the Taliban, Haiti having one tragedy after another.....I could go on......it's enough to make me once again cancel my subscription to the paper.
As kids get older they begin to understand the finer points of hide-n-seek. They will actually go somewhere to hide and when they do they try and make themselves very small and squeeze into tiny spaces.
Fear makes us small. Fear can cause either freeze or flight ---- I've done both very well depending on the situation.
In scary times, we look for persons who steady us, are our trustpoints. During these days, I miss my mom doubly so. She had a tool kit stocked full of ways to handle fear. Sometimes she used humor; after watching a horror movie when I was afraid someone was going to get me she said, "Don't worry, he'll drop you at the first street light." She used reason. She used her presence. She used her faith as she would say, "Perfect love casts out all fear."
We are not made to be small and afraid.
We are called to shine our light into all those dark and scary places. Even the tiniest light, the smallest candle makes a major impact. Shine on.....
I really like this piece. It offers some much-needed hope in the midst of some dark and gloomy times. Thank you.
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