December 10
    
I believe that in our constant search
for security we can never gain any
peace of mind until we are
secure in our own soul.

Margaret Chase Smith

  

Today's Meditation:

When we're kids, it's only natural that we look to others for our security.  After all, we're pretty defenseless on our own.  If we were left to our own devices, it's pretty obvious that we would die pretty quickly.  But that's when we're very young-- when do we reach the point at which we find our security in ourselves?  At what point do we learn that something like a sense of security could not and should not come from someone else?  (Not talking about, of course, people who live in dangerous areas and who may depend on paid security people.)

When we seek our security in someone else, we put an awful lot of pressure on them, pressure that no one else really deserves to have.  We also undermine our own feelings of self-reliance and self-respect.  If we don't feel comfortable with who we are and what we do, we may try to find our security outside of ourselves, in our bank accounts, in other people, in our work, in the homes that we buy, in the material objects that fill those homes, in the insurance policies on which we spend so much money.

But what does it mean to be "secure in our own soul"?  I think it means to trust ourselves to do what's best for others, and not to allow the reactions, actions, and criticisms of others to affect our decisions about our own lives.  We don't allow those things to affect how we feel about ourselves.  We don't allow those things to affect how we treat others.

Our culture wants to teach us to build up the security outside ourselves, and then work on the inner sense of security.  Unfortunately, our culture has it backwards, and also unfortunately, we tend to pay a bit too much attention to what our societies teach us.  We must make the transition from getting our sense of security from others to getting it from ourselves, for that's where the only true security comes from.

Questions to consider:

From where do you get your strongest sense of security?

Why does our culture seem not to value the transition from depending on others to self-dependence?  How much teaching do we receive on this aspect of our lives?

What does it mean to you to be "secure in your own soul"?

For further thought:

There's one form of security we can attain during our lives.  It's inner security-- the kind that comes from courage, experience, and the ability and the willingness to learn, to grow, to attempt the unknown.  Security isn't what the wise person looks for; it's opportunity.  And once we begin looking for that, we find it on every side.  You can measure opportunity with the same yardstick that measures the risk involved.  They go together.

Earl Nightingale

More thoughts and ideas on safety.

  

   

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