This weekend brought a culmination of a lot of darkness: the scariness of Halloween, All Souls Day, Day of the Dead, The timing of the dark and new moon, and the time change, which plunges our late afternoon into the darkness of night. All this at one time is a shock to our beings-body, mind and emotions. Bad timing, to have all this converge at one time-stirs up fears, dread and panic. Many people I know dread the coming months: the short days, the early darkness and lack of light, barren landscape, holiday stresses and pressures, and for those of us in the northlands-the cold. One shared about the panic that overwhelms her with this darkness. In asking the Creator of All that Is to care for her, this letter, prayer came forth. I share it, because I know I have this 'panicked one' in me, too. Maybe you do as well. If so, may you know this Truth:
Dearest ____________:
(Dearest –because this letter is written to that dear one who is on the
receiving end of the experience of panic, not the one doing the panicking.)
Panic attacks are a symptom of the ego* realizing it
has absolutely no impact or ability to control what is external/outside of itself. Darkness is one thing it is not possible
to have control over, short of getting a really big spot light. Even that option has limits to how much
darkness it dispels, and ultimately it just draws attention to the one holding the
spotlight (us). For most of us that is worse than being in the dark. It is
worse because the light is then focused on the parts of ourselves we don't really want others to see, or to acknowledge ourselves!
*Ego is an acronym for ‘Eclipsing God’s Oversight’ or
‘Eclipsing God’s Other’. Ego is also known as: local self/surface self/false
self/mask.
Darkness is an invitation to experience the cost of Ego
being in charge. Like a child’s fear of
the dark. Out of the darkness come
noises from that which cannot be seen. The child fears the noise (or silence) and the
imagined, terrible source of the noise. We, too, have fright coming
from things that cannot be seen (known). We too are terrified by the things we
hear in our heads that cannot be confirmed or de-confirmed, and we live in
fear/terror that our imagined ‘stuff’ might be true. I have met only one person in all my years of
working with others whose ‘stuff’ was as bad as they feared it might be. In fact for this woman, her ‘stuff’ (what she
had hidden in her inner darkness) was even worse than she imagined it could be. And yet,
when she allowed herself to see with the EYES OF HER HEART-which is where real
vision resides, she saw all the different facets of her hidden ‘stuff’. This willingness to see allowed a Healing beyond her
imagination and hope: Compassion, forgiveness, insight, personal transformation,
a new ability to experience love. All this…and more became known and real to
her. It is for everyone. That is a promise if a person is willing and begins to
act from a place of being willing.
There is a solution for all panic attacks. However, the solution requires someone else
be in charge, rather than who is currently running the life of the person
experiencing the panic (or intolerable level of anxiety/ fear). That someone
is whom I call the Divine One, and others call God, Higher Power, Creator,
Love. This is a problem for most people because it requires an act of
Faith. Faith is acting even if we don't
believe. This is where the phrase ‘faith
without action is dead’ or ‘Faith without action is nothing’ comes from. Belief is not a requirement for Faith, but
action is required if Faith is to have any chance to do her work. Action and a willingness to act on Faith is the only invitation needed for healing change to occur.
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