Our most natural fear is of being alone.
We will do a lot in an attempt to prevent it. We often fear change primarily because of the risk we feel of being isolated, of losing something we have. When I made a significant decision recently, this was the one thing I anticipated that felt worse, once the decision was made. In other words, this is where I went first, wondering if I'd made a bad decision, what it might cost me in terms of relationships.
But, I am not alone...and it's really something else that is going on:
The wounds to our ego are our teachers to be welcomed. They should be paid attention to, not litigated or even perfectly resolved.
Whenever we’re led out of normalcy into sacred, open space, it’s going to feel like suffering, because it is letting go of what we’re used to. This is always painful at some level. But part of us has to die if we are ever to grow larger (John 12:24).
-- Richard Rohr
