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Today's
Meditation:
Here's
a nice paradox that makes a lot of sense. How can
safety be dangerous? It most certainly can when we're
so caught up in trying to make sure that everything is under
control that we lose the spontaneity of life, that we don't
allow ourselves to take risks and push our limits because we
may get hurt somehow in the effort.
The
truth is, though, that if we try to be safe, we stop doing
things that may compromise that safety. It's ironic
that we talk about taking risks, but then we buy our safe
houses in our safe neighborhoods in an effort to make life
for our families flow completely smoothly without any bumps
in the road. We want our kids to take risks, but then
we model to them the desire to turn life into a risk-free
experience because we're afraid the risk may not turn out
well. But even if it turns out poorly, what we learn
from the experience is the most important aspect of it, not
the actual outcome itself.
I
really do long for some sort of safety. I don't want
to think that horrible things may happen to me in the future
if I'm unsafe. But I also want to take risks, to
stretch, to push myself, to put myself in situations in
which I may succeed and I may fail, which is antithetical to
the concept of safety. If I'm safe, though, I won't
grow nearly as much as I will if I put myself out there and
take those risks and do new things at which I most certainly
can fail.
Safety
as we know it is over-rated, and as Earl says below, the
only true form of security is the inner type, not the
external. We can develop attitudes and habits that
will give us an inner sense of security if we really want
to, and doing so will give us something to fall back on when
the risks that we take externally fall flat. Life
isn't always going to be easy--and it definitely shouldn't
always be easy. Don't strive for security, for
yourself or others, unless you're willing to stop growing
and changing.
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