Faith Over Fear

Diverting from life’s real struggles, Willa obsessively scrolled online for a pair of new leather boots. 

The boots had specific requirements for her; tall, not suede, snug in the calf, wide in toe, low heel, comfortable and durable to walk to work, but stylish enough to go with her outfits. A tall order.  She’d snap out of the trance of searching after an hour had gone by and she hadn’t gotten any closer to finding just the right boot. So, she ordered something that was close enough; settling. Excited for the arrival, she’d open the box, try them on and be disappointed. The boots arrived, the boots had to be returned. She’d spend hours diving back in, searching for more candidates and avoiding her worries. Somehow, that right boot would make her life right, too. 

Willa put a roll of packing tape in her purse and drove to the mailing store to return two boxes of boots. She had planned to tape up the boxes when she got there, but the packing tape was now no where to be found in her purse or car. She began to panic. She anticipated a long line and the stressful vibe and hurriedness of strangers behind her, especially during the holidays. She fretted that they wouldn’t have packing tape, or that they would charge her for taping it up, shaming her for not being prepared and the customers behind her would curse her under their breath for causing them to wait longer. Six people were ahead of her in line. She looked to the right where they sold packing accessories and she breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of a roll of packing tape. She took it off the shelf, kneeled down and began taping up her boxes of rejected boots in front of the growing line behind her. 

As Willa approached the sight of the counter, she witnessed men and women handing their open boxes to the staff who wielded huge guns of packing tape. They were taping up everyone’s boxes. Everyone’s failed purchase was taken care of. They accepted each open box and taped it right up to go back. An abundance of packing tape. Free packing tape and the service of taping it up properly, even. Free flowing, endless packing tape. Her eyes grew wide in disbelief. Why had she been so fearful? She was just like everyone else.. trying to find the right fit, the thing that would make her happy, just to be disappointed and now they were all in line to start over. 

It’s hard when you’ve been continually disappointed, it’s hard to trust that things will work out. Willa; if she hadn’t been blinded and distracted by her own whirlwind of fear in her mind.. could have looked up out of herself to see that the staff had plenty of packing tape for her boxes, and for everyone’s open box. 

A lot of things don’t work out, but it is assuring that we get to start over. The Universe has our back and provides plenty of "packing tape" to everyone. A chance to begin again. Willa felt embarrassed that she got lost in fear mode, over the smallest of things - but it was a good lesson to remember to choose Faith over Fear. Making decisions based in fear never works out. Willa literally had to pay for it - the packing tape. If she had faith, she wouldn’t have. 

Life is a balance of knowing and reaching towards what you want, and also letting go enough to trust that things will work out in divine timing. Purpose and Intention coupled with Patience and Faith.  

When Willa let go of desperation to find the right pair of boots, she replaced it with gratitude for the pile of footwear that already existed on her floor. No new boots, but a new attitude. 


Beauty is Everywhere. 

-Holly

​