Perhaps my greatest fear Was that of being alone. The tearful pains Of unmet needs Some hollow yearning A grasping for other.
Faced with aloneness, The deafening silence Of the walls of my home Served to amplify the hurt, A ubiquitous mirror of My empty condition.
A lover? A wife? Extended family? Community? A lifetime of attempts to satisfy this deepest ache.
Even the moments Of greatest communion Came to conclusion, And were not enough To quell the ache.
Even a night Of blissful embrace Was not enough paint To cover the hurt In the background of psyche.
At the bottom of it all a simple fact was clear a gripping fear of emptiness a dominant theme in my life.
But life of the spirit changes all that the all-consuming fear is met head on with the gaze of awareness.
One makes friends with what was once feared or perceived as a threat to happiness and joy.
And when recognition dawns a great clarification: what was once thought a disturbing threat and a reason for flight, becomes a vast treasure and a fountain of peace.
With new-found friends of aloness and space the tables have turned, the fear being purged and the heart is thus spilled in every direction.
The lesson thus learned to walk the dark valley of one's greatest fears, to open the doors in the basement of being, is the deepest service that one could perform for oneself and others
Fear and Loneliness on Planet Earth
Posted - Nov 23 2007 : 09:18:25 AM
