The Lion King is famous for the song, “The Circle of Life”. Most of us can picture Mufasa, holding up little Simba, proud and full of love. When I picture the scene in the Lion King, I feel my eyes crinkle into a smile and my shoulders relax.
But there is an opposite to the Circle of Life. There is the Circle of Fear. I am no stranger to this place. But I’m sure I have underestimated it exponentially. I have judged fear, or anxiety, or stress, or insecurity, or any of its pseudonyms, as a trivial individual concern.
I know what fear does to me. It’s a focusing inward posture and thought process. I think up ways to mitigate, to reassure, to be safe. Perhaps I need a new petition or a law, a new tonic or drug, perhaps I need to look thinner or use hair dye, maybe I need to subtly lift myself up at the expense of my neighbor. At its most harmful I need to find an enemy to blame.
It feels like there is not enough. And it’s catchier than a pandemic. Unless skilled like a Jedi, you start to fall ill when surrounded by it. “Why was I so naive,” you think to yourself as you join the sick circle of fear and pass it on. scarcity of resources blinks like a neon warning light.
You go get the new alarm system, buy the gun, don’t go to the music hall for fear of someone else and their gun. You shutter up the shop that offers your gifts to the world. And the only thing you have to offer the person next to you is…more of the same fear.
Circle complete.
I am convinced that fear is our worst contagious disease and our greatest public health threat.
I haven’t found the cure, but I have found a few things to break out of the fear racetrack. The good news is that these things are always available, and they are free.
You just chose. The circle of Life. Or the Circle of Fear.
Choosing Life means choosing the substance of Life as illustrated in the famous scene from the Lion King. Choose belief and love. Choose faith. Choose to see the other in front of you. Listen to people around you and learn their hearts, not just their words. Practice humility and really laugh. Serve. Share your gifts boldly. Stop hiding them. Let me repeat that: Stop Hiding You.
Live Namaste, Matthew 7:12, or your own personal version of the same.
In the end, the Circle of Fear gets us alone and afraid and convinced that the Circle of Life is not real. But in the end, your Life is the only real thing of any value you can leave behind. Choose well…and then go infect the others with reckless abandon.
