An Invitation
September 11th used to be a date of happy anticipation for me. It is the day before my wedding anniversary, so it is something I– previously– associated only with eagerness for the celebrating to come on the 12th.
After 2001, however, this all changed.
Yes, I still look forward to and do celebrate my wedding anniversary with my husband on September 12th each year. But, the day before is a more confusing experience now. For me, there is a sadness and a bit of anxiousness mixed in with my excitement to commemorate the love that my husband and I have shared over the years.
September 11th is most definitely a day for remembering the people who died. It is also a day to be inspired by the example of those many heroes who, in various ways, stepped up so bravely and generously to help during and after the terrorist attacks in 2001.
These acts of courage– in the many forms that they took and continue to take– cause me to question the official naming of September 11th as “Patriot Day.”
In my mind, there is nothing patriotic about what happened on September 11, 2001. There is, however, a lot that happened that was fearless.
The people who fought and tried to change the course of a hijacked plane were fearless.
Those who made their way out of the smoke and debris to safety were fearless.
The many rescue workers who rushed into the destruction to find survivors and victims were fearless.
The countless people who rebuilt their lives without their loved ones physically present anymore are fearless.
The millions of Americans who reached out to help in whatever ways they could were (and are) fearless.
I propose that September 11th should be re-named Fearlessness Day.
The courage to keep going and to try and make this world a better place through acts of giving, forgiveness and acceptance transcend the boundaries of any one country. There is no flag to be waved over or border to hold when it comes love.
An invitation to be fearless…
On this day that I have re-declared to be Fearlessness Day, I invite each one of us to look within ourselves for those places of fear, perhaps even of terror. These are probably those thoughts, memories, beliefs and aspects of ourselves that we try to hide away and pretend don’t exist.
These fears don’t tend to stay neatly hidden away, however.
They are triggered from time to time and we find ourselves reacting to what seems so scary and threatening. We might try to run away; we may freeze; or we may lash out and fight, often without even consciously deciding to.
Fears arise when we are faced with people and ways of living that are very different than our own.
Fears arise when we feel as if the ground is slipping out from under our feet and we have nothing upon which we can truly depend.
Fears arise when we are faced with our own perceived imperfections and mortality.
On this upcoming Fearlessness Day, I encourage each of us to stop trying to hide away our fears. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, to be truly fearless, we are required to look our anxieties and terrors directly in the eye– and to do so with as much love as we can muster.
To “sit with” what scares us is an essential step to freedom from the hold that scary thing appears to have over us.
“Sitting with” our fears means that we no longer react unconsciously to them. We no longer make war with or struggle against our individual and collective terrors.
Instead, we recognize them and stay right where we are. We breathe deeply and continue to love ourselves and others as we choose responses that can create connection and bring peace.
As Mahatma Gandhi said, “A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.”
Make the deliberate choice to be loving, even in the midst of that which frightens you the most. That is fearlessness.
