Day Ten- Carry a Light for Faith

  

    I was reading some one's advice on how to deal with our faults and negative emotions. They suggested 'embracing the dark side' of the emotion, letting it grow inside and then trying to control it. Sounds a bit like creating a monster and then trying to rein it in.
   Mmm, I have a lot of issues with this advice, especially as it was given to someone I care about and it was given during a moment when they were upset and just wanted someone to listen to them.
   First of all, we all know what happens to a person when they go towards 'the dark side of the force.' Although, Anakin's intentions were good to begin with; he wanted to save the love of his life; by embracing the 'dark side' he was no longer in control and was consumed by it.
    If you want to get rid of the shadows in your life, don't extinguish the lights, instead fill up the room so brightly there isn't any more room for the shadows.
   I'm not saying that we aren't going to experience emotions that we consider more on the negative side, such as anger, sadness, worry, etc. And it's not wrong to feel these emotions, sometimes they are very necessary things.
   Sadness has to be felt; either to properly grieve or to change things. When confronted by a situation that brings us sadness, we can direct that emotion into compassion and  do something positive. Such as volunteers, mentoring, or taking care of each other in our times of need. But we can't just waddle in it otherwise it will send us into a well of depression.
  
   A bit of time worrying over situations or people shows that we care. If we control the worry to solve our problems and help our loved ones, and not allow it to swallow all our other emotions, then we can use it. (I'm not so good at not worrying, especially as lately. Hero hottie is the loud worrier. I'm the quiet, let it collect in my gut worrier. I'm working on this one. Of course, when the science channel told me the sun might burn out in billions of years, I couldn't resist making fun of my own tendency to worry and turned to hero hottie with a laugh. -- "Oh, great. Something else for me to worry about now." )

   Anger, can be directed towards change, if we use it positively, such as to discuss problems in a relationship, not resorting to name calling or violence. We can use it to change injustices in the world without using the violent side of this strong emotion. I have never seen a person able to allow the anger to grow into a fiery rage and not be close to losing control of it. Perhaps that is why anger reminds us of fire, the stronger and hotter it gets, the harder it is to put out. This emotion, along with jealously and fear, can be quite dangerous and that's why I feel like advice given to embrace the dark side of these feelings is foolish. Terribly dangerous.

   You can not find your spiritual path, your journey to faith in the black places of the dark side. That's not to say that your path may not wind into these tough and despairing destinations where hope is a bare, thin thought, but we do not leave these places by dwelling in them. By embracing them- the dark side.
    We survive these lost areas of our soul by finding a light to guide us. To find our faith. Our path. To shine on the road so we don't trip over the stumbling blocks; such as people that either enjoy the dark side or have been so lost in it they are blinded by the light that searches for them and want company.

    I admire people whose lights shine brightly, for they bring hope along on this collective journey of faith. And we all could use a little extra helping of hope on this tough journey we call being human.

Lost Bunnies and Missing Dollar value

        Today's blog is brought to you by the word frantic.
       ' Frantic'

       
       Oh, goodness. What can I say? I started the week off by waking up late and only by kicking into frantic mode being able to pull off the seemingly impossible feat of getting the kids to school on time.
       We only had twenty-eight minutes to eat, get dressed, and drive to school.
       People with children will understand that a miracle has occurred.
      
       The week hasn't slowed down since then and the frustration level keeps building. Meditation has totally lost this week; beat down and held hostage by tension, frustration and a general sense of fear of the unknown direction of the world. I'm sorry, but I have issues with the EPA talking about upping the safe levels of radiation. Because then that makes it safe? I'm sure any high school science teacher would have issues with that logic too.
       I'm sure that it's not just me feeling this general sense of uneasiness. The entire world seems to be waiting in the corner ring, ready for the signal, the crowd going wild. But no one knows for sure who they're cheering for.
      Near fist fights between fifth graders, depression in everyone I know, and rude people at that store seem to be the theme of the week. Yes, these things happen at other times and it's not hard to find people lacking in manners at the big box discount stores but this week it seems worse, like everyone is on edge.
      Is worry flammable?

      Last night a mini herd of plastic bunny rabbits decided to escape and roam the neighborhood. Unfortunately, they left the owner of them in tears. Heart breaking, gut wrenching tears and even though I have told this wonderful child of mine to keep wandering toys closer to home, some lessons are painful to learn.
     Still, deep sobs are hard to ignore and shivering in the cold because spring here can be rather chilly, I was out in the dark with a flashlight trying to find little plastic toys. I didn't have any luck and tear stains on chubby cheeks was the sad note of the night. (Sigh.)
      This morning the bunnies came home and for a few hours this crazy, 'doesn't make sense' world was in balance again. The sun is shining and life is good.
 
       Too bad as an adult fixing things is never as easy as finding lost toys. And our lessons are never as simple as learning to keep track of our toys. We have to make sense of a world that to this generation has never seen as crazy. We have massive uprisings in Africa and conflicts that aren't considered wars even though we're using war planes and missiles and fighting. I guess my dictionary is different than the people in charge.
      We have radiation from Japan traveling the winds and now waters around the world and we're told not to worry. I hate to worry and I try not to think about something I can't see anyway, but I have children. Tell me not to worry.
     I listen to the 'newscasters' on the news and the politicians that tell me that the American dollar is strong and enormous debt problem isn't something to worry about but I go to the grocery store and my dollar must be missing something because one trip cost me more than the time before and I have less food in my cart. But I'm not too worry? Will radiated vegetables cost less or more?

     I need to find a bit of positive to end with but this week it's a bit difficult to find a sense of calmness when the world is in frantic mode and you feel like your choices are either trying to keep up or be dragged underneath the wheels. I will take a deep breath and remind myself that worry doesn't give me more time, it's actually a thief of such things and prevents a person from focusing on the important things in life. So tonight I will pay extra attention to my children at the dinner table, remembering that today was actually a great day because lost bunnies found their way home.