It’s fascinating to think about and question the ripples we are living in. The ripples of past decisions, actions, successes, failures, hope, courage, faith, love… fear.
Fear, that’s the biggest ripple.
Like ripples in the water, emanating from a single point of disruption, spreading, extending out in waves, lapping each other, over and over until it spreads so that one instant in the past, now transcends a lasting affect into the future.
Our fears but not just our fears, the fears of our mothers and fathers, their mothers and fathers and their mothers and fathers, and so on.
We are a sum of our decisions – our choices have gotten us to where we are today. But most if not all our decisions are based on some kind of fear. Which is not a bad thing, fear is our primal emotion for survival. But some fears we tell ourselves are irrational, figments or has no meaningful impact in our lives. Many of those kinds of fears are narratives we tell ourselves that might result in separation and rejection.
Maybe it’s not too hard to realize or admit we make decisions indirectly or subconsciously because of fear. But it is humbling to admit we are also living in the ripples of generational fears before us. Fears about money. Fears about relationships. Fears about career. Fears about family. Fears about friends. Fears about life and death. Fears of making the wrong decision. Fears about the future. Fears about the past. Fears about acceptance and validation. Fear of instability. Fear of failure. Fear of success. Fear of hope. Fear of hopelessness.
But what do those fears look like, sound like? Maybe a parent has a fear of not having money or lack of job security. Maybe it sounds like, get good grades, go to a good college, get a good job. Maybe the child follows it or doesn’t follow that advice, but whether or not they do or don’t, they are living in the ripple of that fear. Where they’re making decisions based around a fear they might not instinctually have, but may eventually become adopted based on their decision.
We are all connected, living, feeling, reacting to the people, lives, energy around us. Like a butterfly effect, like the ripples in a pond, spreading, touching, affecting in ways unseen and untraceable but moving through all of us.