What If…

Do you have this simmering unsettled feeling within? What if violence escalates, what if the worst thing happens, what if Russia, what if China…We know intellectually that we don’t control what happens in the world: what others say and don’t say, what other countries do and don’t do, but that knowledge rarely reaches our hearts.

We can only manage how we react, how we hold the world’s chaos. What are we imagining? Could anyone have imagined the fierce fight for freedom Ukrainians would wage? Perhaps, their beautiful lives are worth the battle. Would you sell flowers again, after the fighting had quieted a bit? But this is what happened in Mykolaiv, Ukraine!

What seeds of faith and hope live in this shop owner? What seeds of faith live in us? It is time to stop saying, “What if…” and begin to say, “If, then…”

If havoc wrecks my world, my relationships, my business, my home, my family, then I will keep hoping, keep buying flowers, keep having faith that things will get better.

Let’s replace what if with, “if then,” it will make all the difference in our interior world. And we might bring more peace to the world around us.

“We must write with permanent marker over the pages of our lives, “All will be well.” Even if we find ourselves in the most horrific situations, we must hold onto hope so that we have the energy and audacity to keep going.”

Rejecting Fear pg. 46

Diane Hallenbeck