overcompensating for the fear

today, as n and i talked, several thoughts traversed my mind. one of them was about how varied people respond to varied tests. it occurred to me that, in times of tests, we often run the danger of overcompensating for whatever brings us to the test in the first place. for instance, if too much trust brings us to pain, we may tend to place lesser trust in the world. but perhaps that isn't the best course of action. perhaps it would make better sense to insert reason into trust, to ensure that the trust is well-placed. sometimes we need to look beyond the situation to discover the best course of action. you know what i mean?

this train of thought hit me only because i've fallen victim to this phenomenon only too often in the past. the realization that growth must always be 'global' and not 'local' (to a situation, that is) came rather late. zukav's dichotomy of fear and love comes back to mind, and it is true - we need to be careful that one fear is not replaced by another, or strengthened further; that all fear undergoes transformation (however slow or steady) into love.

so long as we allow our fears to roll into one and add to each other's strength, we trap ourselves into the creation of fear monsters. and the destruction of these monstrous fears, while uber-effective, will come with far greater pain than if we were to gently transform the smaller fears. tnh would refer to these as knots - the new and easy to untie knots, versus the tighter and impossible to disentangle ones.

(i feel inarticulate and disinclined to write more right now, though i'm unsure why. i hope my point is clear: the big picture is where it's at.)