THE SCHOOL OF LIFE

 

I asked the school of life

What it could teach me best;

The teacher I was given

Never gave me rest.

She gave me many useful lessons

That helped me shun despair

And taught me how to master

The magic art of care.

But the greatest skill she gave me

Was the skill to banish fears

Which spared me untold moments

Drowned in helpless tears.

Right now the world is drowning in fear. This fear is mostly generated by the governments of the world. Whoever is at the top has the most power to dictate which way the tide will go. Not only is this fear debilitating mentally but it is turning us against each other and depriving us of family togetherness.

I met a lady last year who told me her sister had died of Covid. I said to her: "Oh that's terrible! How are you coping?" She answered: "We're ok. People die. People die of all sorts of things, every day. My sister died of Covid." And never a greater truth has been spoken. People die just walking out of their house. My father-in-law did. He was hit but a car crossing the road and died instantly. Consider all the deaths that happen that we rarely anticipate and fear: wars, natural disasters, crime, sickness that comes and goes, traffic accidents....just too name a few.

The thing is, we often fear things that never come to pass so a lot of distress is experienced unnecessarily. A lot of times though, we attract what we fear. Energy is a real thing. The law of attraction works both ways, it attracts the negative as much as it attracts the positive. I am reminded of a little story I read years ago that goes something like this: A man was walking on a road one day when he met Plague and Fear. They told him they were on their way to a neighbouring town where they were going to kill 2,000 people. The man said to the Plague: "I guess you have your work cut out for you" but the Plague replied: "Oh no, I am only going to kill 200, Fear is going to do the rest".

This life is a life of opposites. We cannot expect joy, happiness and wellness without experiencing sadness, grief and sickness. Otherwise, what would be the point of us being here? God knew we would experience all the bad with the good so He gave us the gift of resilience, power and faith. Fear is inverted faith. With each situation in life we are choosing either one or the other. May we greet each day of this precarious life with the echo of these words of wisdom and decide which way our day will go:

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7)

• Cathryne Allen
  (ART: The Doors by Markus)