Its title was "Funny Frankenstein" and I found it right by the kindergarten yard. I realized that some smart teacher was making the scary halloween images less so by allowing kids to color these happy looking monsters. This probably gives those kids a feeling of power over their fears and fantasys.
The monsters children are afraid of are not really real. There are no such things as ghosts or zombies or Frankenstein monsters, right?
I thought about our stratagies for managing our fears.
That made me wonder how real our fears are. War, economic strife, death of a loved one; they all feel pretty real. And they are, but do we need to spend so much time being afraid of these things? They might come, they might not. What's happening now? That's what's important. I'll bet if you look at your life, you'll discover that, mostly, things are Ok.
Living a fulfilling life is all about gracefully negotiating a way through the inevitability of change. War, economic strife, and death are pretty big changes, I'll grant you, but I bet you've been through a lot, have overcome a lot, and worried about a lot and still, things have turn out all right in your life.
I remember a fairy story where the hero picked up a fearsome monster and just looked at it. The monster, when really looked at, faded away to nothing. This is one way to handle our problems. I think sometimes that works, but it takes time, and courage, and can be painful. It's sort of like Therapy.
Another way of doing it is to focus attention on what feels good to us, what gives us a feeling of peacefulness and tranquility. When we practice this kind of focus, our fears don't have so much to feed on, and they melt away. Give it a try.
Love, Kristine
