“Hostile, resentful, self-centered and self-seeking, we cut ourselves off from the outside world. Anything not completely familiar became alien and dangerous. Our world shrank and isolation became our life. We used in order to survive.” (The Basic Text, p. 4)
“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.” – Jim Morrison (1943 – 1971) U.S. musician lead singer for “The Doors”
Riders on the Storm – The Doors (7:04)
How has “self-centered” fear given you grief, lately?
Now That We Have Tasted Hope –
by Khaled Mattawa, 1964
Now that we have come out of hiding,
Why would we live again in the tombs we’d made out of our souls?
And the sundered bodies that we’ve reassembled
With prayers and consolations,
What would their torn parts be, other than flesh?
Now that we have tasted hope
And dressed each other’s wounds with the legends of our
oneness
Would we not prefer to close our mouths forever shut
On the wine that swilled inside them?
Having dreamed the same dream,
Having found the water behind a thousand mirages,
Why would we hide from the sun again
Or fear the night sky after we’ve reached the ends of
darkness,
Live in death again after all the life our dead have given us?
Listen to me Zow’ya, Beida, Ajdabya, Tobruk, Nalut,
[L]isten to me Derna, Musrata, Benghazi, Zintan,
Listen to me houses, alleys, courtyards, and streets that
throng my veins,
Some day soon, in your freed light, in the shade of your
proud trees,
Your excavated heroes will return to their thrones in your
martyrs’ squares,
Lovers will hold each other’s hands.
I need not look far to imagine the nerves dying,
Rejecting the life that blood sends them.
I need not look deep into my past to seek a thousand hopeless vistas.
But now that I have tasted hope
I have fallen into the embrace of my own rugged innocence.
How long were my ancient days?
I no longer care to count.
I no longer care to measure.
How bitter was the bread of bitterness?
I no longer care to recall.
Now that we have tasted hope, this hard-earned crust,
We would sooner die than seek any other taste to life,
Any other way of being human.
Fear at work is a big issue. One of the things I am learning right now is the power I give to gossip. When I have engaged in gossip in the past, I found it easy to laugh at others. I am grateful to now be aware that I am the subject of some office gossip. Guess I won’t be doing gossip anymore. It is painful!
Now, about those amends…
I have to keep in mind that the things in life that I really matter in my life are not really mine to loose.
What I generally forget to do is show gratitude for the blessing in my life. If I stay in a state of gratitude then fear takes a back seat because I realize how blessed I really am.
self centered fear.. hmmmm sometimes the fear of not being good enough.. especially at work… thinking there are others who are better than me at the job,
the boss likes them more. etc ,
not to mention the fear of losing someones friendship, causes self centered anger which causes bad behavior, and i lose them anyway…