Fears for the Future

Square


I am a Grandmother now, but I can look back and remember a time when I thought the world would end before I had the chance to find love, get married and have children. I think we can all relate to Sylvia Boorstein’s comforting response to similar fears in the May 2018 issue of Lion’s Roar magazine.

She was on her way to teach and was waiting in the rain for the light to change. Her foot on the brake, her mind churning with anger, dismay and despair over the morning news. Then the crossing guard caught her attention. He was an older man with a bright yellow rain slicker holding up a big red stop sign in one hand while the other hand was holding an umbrella over groups of two or three children as he walked them across the busy street. The unrushed, 100 percent attention that he seemed to give his charges cleared her mind. In recognizing goodness in the world, she remembered that fear clouds the mind and keeps it from seeing possible solutions.

Think of it this way she told her class later that morning, ”Imagine the world surrounded by a rain of troubles. We each only need umbrellas and stop signs and the intent to protect. We don’t need to do the whole job ourselves.”