Where do you find safety?

Last night I took a walk in my neighborhood and admired the many yards blooming with flowers, shrubs, and ornaments.  These modest houses are well-kept, close together, and built in a time of solid construction. I’ve learned how deep the roots in northeast Minneapolis are for some people who live in their grandparents’ house, or return to the block on which they were raised, or have children living close by.  We don’t need bigger houses to enjoy a marvelous life.

Where do you find safety? We each hold a worldview that helps us feel safe.  Right now, a group that believes there’s not enough for everyone and therefore they need to insure they get theirs (“we will not be replaced”) is in the news. A perspective of scarcity interprets anyone else’s advance as dangerous and any means towards self-protection as ok.

I feel safe believing this is an abundant world, and that when everyone has food, shelter, water, education and health, we’re all better off.  As I let go of more stuff, cut my working hours with a corresponding cut in pay, and stop shopping for recreation, I learn to focus on what truly nourishes my spirit—connections with others, creative endeavors, and time outside. 

In less than 10 days I head off to walk in Spain--an attempt to displace myself from routine, put my safety in the hands of strangers, and live with what I carry in a backpack. It’s one thing to say this world is abundant and loving and another to trust it through action. No doubt at least a few times I’ll have to leap empty-handed into a void and develop new levels of faith. (I’ll also carry a phone and a credit card,  a safety net millions do not have.)

How to reconcile these two viewpoints of the way the world operates? How to talk to someone threatened by another’s thriving? I don’t know.  I have people who believe this in my life today, and I’m not certain how to have conversations with them.  Maybe when I return I’ll have new stories that show that loving everyone in this world really is the route to freedom and joy.