Every time you turn on the TV and watch the news and political ads or listen to the news on the radio we hear much of the same thing. It seems in today’s society many, many people in this country are living in fear. Some are fearful that they may catch COVID-19. Others may be fearful that their freedoms are being taken away from them. Then there are those who are fearful to even go out because of protests, riots and even shootings. We are even seeing more and more people with carry permits who are walking into stores like Walmart or Target or even a grocery store wearing a weapon on their hips. I have seen more and more men carrying a firearm on the hip than I have ever seen before. I don’t know if they are fearful or not. I know that they are probably causing others to be fearful on what those carrying might do. People are shooting people for the craziest reasons. One person even shot someone for not wearing a mask in a store.
Some of this, I believe is fear based and some of it is built up anger for years. I don’t believe it is all because of police shooting and killings. It is more general than that. People are tired of being told to stay inside. As the months have passed, these lock downs have driven people stir crazy, so when they were finally able to get out, they went from one extreme to the other. In addition, we are so used to having freedom here in America, that when we are told we have to do something for our own, and others protection, we rebel and demand our freedom.
In many cases, we have forgotten about others. Many people have become “I” people and not “we” people.
The other important part of all this is what we think about ourselves. If we do not or cannot like and love ourselves, there is no way we can like and love others. It all has to start from within. A good place to start is by looking in the mirror and asking yourself what you don’t like about yourself. Once you know what you don’t like, then you can start to change.
Another important thing to know is that fear does NOT conquer fear. Only love can conquer fear. So, once we have learned to love ourselves then we will be able to love others and overcome any and all our fears.
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