Fear

Fear…what exactly makes us develop fear?  Regardless of whether it’s a fear of heights, or spiders, or even confined places, fear is fear.  Unless we face our fears, we will continue to let them consume us.  Some even have a fear of love and commitment.  Regardless of your fear, you must determine the root of that fear.   Are you afraid of heights because you have fallen and hurt yourself?  Are you afraid of spiders because your mother was?  Are you afraid of confined places because your sibling locked you in a small, dark closet?  There is a reason for this fear.  

I have had many friends who have and still do have a fear of love and commitment.  I have even struggled with this.  I know where my fear comes from and that is past heartbreaks, disappointments, loss of trust, and lies.  Who can actually move forward with someone when they have a fear of being on the receiving end of the same type of hurt?  You must realize though, that you cannot experience that great love unless you open your heart, take down that wall and allow yourself to feel it and experience it. Allow love to flow through you.  You have that capacity to love since you've done it before, so don't waste your big heart by keeping it under lock and key.  You cannot expect someone to love you, if you are afraid to love them.  Merle Shane said, “Loving can cost a lot but not loving always costs more, and those who fear to love often find that want of love is an emptiness that robs the joy from life.”  I would rather risk another heartbreak by allowing someone to see my true self, my heart than to be a bitter old person who lives alone.

Why go through life with a fear of anything?  Don't!  Fear stems from worry and we already tend to worry about things that we have no control over.   Fear causes unnecessary and avoidable stress.  Try to go with the flow and allow greatness to happen to you.  If you find that you have developed a fear, think about why it scares you.  What about it is actually so fearful…the unknown?  A past hurt or regret? A past accident? Face your fear...overcome it and if you determine that it is too great to deal with alone, look up and pray.  Give your worries and fears and struggles to the one who has control over all...God! 

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”  So analyze the fear and then face the fear because if you continue to live this way, you are only living half your life.

No Time

Where does the time go?  There is supposed to be 24 hours in a day, but sometimes it seems that there isn't. The world is running at a fast pace, never slowing down or making time for leisure time.  When they do, they are worrying about everything they should be doing....so how is that enjoying leisure time?

I live a somewhat laid back lifestyle.  My kids are grown. . .basically.  I move my son (the baby in the family) into his dorm next week and then it's just me so I have plenty of time on my hands while others don't have enough.  I could fill all my time up in a day, but then I'd have no time for me, no time to write or listen to music or miss my boyfriend.  Sometimes I wish I could loan him some of my extra time so he would have a moment for a breather.

It's just a rat race, an everyday "life a blur" situation and why?  Have we forgotten our purpose on this Earth?  This is just our temporary home.  All the worldly things we do every day is for naught.  We jump up, get ready for work, go to work, come home, fix supper, eat supper, go to bed and then wake up the next morning and do the same thing.....the cycle I have referred to previously.  No one ever stops to enjoy it.  Why work for money to pay for a house and a car and whatever else, if you are never at home to enjoy it?  Yeah, you are burning the roads up in your vehicle, but it's a means to an end and why do we care what type of car we buy because we certainly aren't enjoying it.

The world's perception is skewed.  Everyone out for themselves, trying to make them self look good, even lying and for what?  Who cares what the world thinks about you or about your decision?  I would be more concerned with being honest and trustworthy and ethical.  So what does that have to do with time?  Well let's see....it doesn't take time to be trustworthy, to be honest, but does take time to lie, not only the time of the one lying because he or she had to come up with the far fetched story, but also the time to make sure that everyone else stands behind the lie and then the constant need to lie to keep the lie going. . .  It further wastes the time of the one hearing it or the one whom the lie is about because then he or she has to correct the problem and ends up losing time having to deal with correction instead of other more pressing issues. Never thought that one lie could take up so much of the precious time that we apparently don't have, did you?

Stop what you are doing. . .what is it that you want most in the world?  More time right?  You have all the time you need to make each day a better day, each moment a better moment.  Go to work and when you leave, leave your work and your problems and your bad day there.  Come home and spend time with those you love and care about - your wife/husband, your kids, your family, your pets.  If you aren't married, then make time for your girlfriend/boyfriend, your friends, etc.  Spend time teaching your kids about what's really important in this world.  It's not money or fancy clothes or big houses. . .that's not what's important. That's not what makes you happy or liked.  Your genuineness and thoughtfulness; your love and concern; your heart. . .that's what's important. Not outward appearance but who you are inside.  Once you determine your priorities and what's important to you, that's when you will find all the time you once thought you didn't have enough of.