There was once a city – renowned far and wide for its beauty, riches, and hospitality. Many visited it to share in its beauty and resources, to trade and to enjoy the warm welcome of its people; in doing so they brought gifts and ideas which enriched its culture and caused it to flourish and grow.
One day Fear came to visit. No-one is sure exactly when or how, as they did not recognise it for what it was, and so they entertained it without thought or understanding.
Fear basked in the lack of recognition and grew, so that the people began to see things differently, for that is the gift of Fear.
Rather than enjoy and share what each had, the people started to fear the loss of it. Whereas they had celebrated the city’s wonderful diversity, and its ever-changing beauty, they began to worry that they could not control that change and to see change as loss.
As they looked outside the city at other lands and saw there was want and unhappiness. Fear whispered to their hearts that it was because there was not enough, so they started to see their resources as limited and believe they must hold onto and protect them.
Rather than welcome visitors and the ideas that came with them, the people started to pay more attention to what visitors took rather than what they brought to the city. Some started to openly share their perception that nothing anyone could bring would be enough to replace what they were taking by merely being there, and over time Fear’s companion Resentment also took root.
With Fear and Resentment now firmly established, yet still unrecognised for what they were, the people chose leaders who promised to give back control and protect what was rightly theirs. They were comfortable with the new way of looking at the world, it was no longer new, it was familiar.
To tackle the problems Fear had created, at first the leaders dug a moat around the city and set up ports to manage visitors. However, as nature embraced the new moat, it became a beautiful addition to the landscape, and it started to attract more visitors; the leaders found it impossible to control the number of boats crossing the moat. Fear grew as they felt less and less in control and as its power increased. It whispered the idea that the visitors were a threat and soon Fear and Resentment together had alienated the people from love and left them only with vulnerability; they clamoured for action.
So, the leaders built a wall to make them safe, not realising each stone in it was created from Fear. They reduced the ease of trading and made only a few gates which were guarded so that they felt firmly in control. They turned most people away who tried to enter.
Those who were turned away felt the loss. They felt hurt and rejected; they did not understand what they had done to cause it. The pain was so unpleasant that over time to manage the pain many covered it with anger and sometimes violence. They shouted their pleas to be let in at the gates, and when there was no response, they threw stones of desperation and anger at the walls. The people inside the city felt under siege; they closed off all but one of the gates and increased the guards.
So it was that the people in the city became cut off from the rest of the world, but also from the very things that had made the city flourish. The people within the city soon found that they had lost much of what had made their lives rich and beautiful, and over time the want and unhappiness they had feared most developed within their walls.
They had not realised that the enemy within had caused the enemy outside and they entertained it still.
Share D’All
Tales of the Universe 
Well said – thanks, Share!
Kind Regards,Judy
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Thank you 🙂