Practices From the Inside Out: Is Our World a Frightening Place?

Is Our World a Frightening Place?

Many of us are getting ready to celebrate the frightening aspects of our world in a few days.

We will choose a character and an appropriate costume, light candles, and head out into the dark. Some of us try to coat the more frightening parts of Halloween in candy, but it is about being scared.

Yes, there are treats and tricks as well as masks and costumes. The truths go deeper than that.

Halloween has strong cultural, historic, and spiritual roots entwined with some of our deepest fears. When I was a child, I understood Halloween as a day for collecting candy. As I grew up, I focused more on deciding what costume to wear and how best to celebrate. Some years there were parties, and some years I went to see scary movies.

None of these were the essence of Halloween. I was missing the point.

While Halloween may have a history which goes back beyond Christianity, it has been adapted by Christians. The night before All Hallow’s Day, or All Hallow’s Eve, is an opportunity to consider death and darkness.

Halloween marks the end of the harvest and the beginning of the darkest part of the year. It is a day to remember the people who have gone before us, laying the foundation for our lives.

We take time to reflect on the parts of our lives which most frighten us.

Some of us carve scary faces on pumpkins or watch frightening movies. We might dress up as the people of whom we are most afraid, or who are most likely to frighten others.

We take one day each year trying to convince ourselves we can live with the things which we find most frightening.

Why do we celebrate what frightens us?

Living in a Frightening Place

Some of us like to believe spiritual life is all about becoming stronger and less frightened. We like to think our practices help us build spiritual abilities which help us feel less afraid.

It is easy for us to assume we become less frightened as we grow in spiritual life. Like children who grow out of some of their fears we see ourselves as more spiritually mature. We know there is nothing hiding in the dark and the costumes are merely dressing up.

I believe spiritual life is about living in a more frightening place than that.

We celebrate Halloween because we know we live in a frightening place. As we grow in spiritual wisdom and maturity we recognize our world is full of valid reasons to be afraid.

Spiritual life is not about living in constant fear and anxiety. It is also, though, not about being unrealistic.

Some of us are afraid because of remarkably real things we have already experienced. We live with the memories and the trauma which continues to haunt our present and our future. Even when we have moved on to find somewhere safer we continue to live in a frightening place.

Others of us fear all the possible things which could go wrong. We live with expectations of disappointments and disasters we believe could befall us. Even when our fears are not based in our own experiences we still live in a frightening place.

Recognizing and understanding our fears requires us to spend time reflecting on them. We contemplate what frightens us and why. We share our stories with a trusted, listening friend who can help us see them clearly and learn their lessons.

The world may be a frightening place but we do not need to live in fear.

Spiritual Life in a Frightening Place

Our contemplative practices help us become more open to spiritual life. We listen and reflect as spiritual life works within us to show us how to live in this frightening place we call home.

Spiritual life teaches us we do not need to live in fear even when we live in a frightening place. We may be surrounded by difficult challenges which frighten us, but we do not need to be immobilized by fear.

We are not alone in any frightening place we face.

Each of us experiences our own fears and disappointments, our own loss and pain. Spiritual life is not designed to erase those or nullify them. Our fear and pain do not go away.

Spiritual life shows us who we are and who we can become. Rather than taking away what frightens us, spiritual life helps us appreciate the power and potential we have.

Spiritual life is more about healing than about keeping us from being frightened. It tells us we do not need to be afraid.

Growing in spiritual life helps us find our way in each frightening place we visit. We practice taking another step into even when we are frightened.

Celebrating in a Frightening Place

This week we carve our pumpkins, light our candles, and put on our frightening costumes. Some of us will hand out treats to people in frightening costumes.

Each of us will be celebrating our lives in a frightening place.

We may have different fears and our own ideas of what a frightening place is.

Some of us may be in a frightening place because of how we have been abused in the past. Others of us are in a frightening place because of who we love. For some of us a school or where we work can be a frightening place.

Our world may be a frightening place because we have lost someone we love.

We each experience our own personal fear and pain. This week we will each celebrate living in a frightening place in our own ways.

Some of us will light candles and some will put on masks. We might celebrate with tricks or treats.

We carve a picture of what scares us on a pumpkin so the light of a candle can shine through.

Where is the frightening place we find ourselves in today?

How will we celebrate in a frightening place this week?

[Image by Jay Santiago]

Greg Richardson is a spiritual life mentor and coach in Southern California. He is a recovering attorney and a lay Oblate with New Camaldoli Hermitage near Big Sur, California. Greg’s website is StrategicMonk.com and his email address is [email protected].