Love conquers fear
Sitting here in the stillness of my cozy 1,000 square foot 1928 apartment, with the most beautiful porch overlooking the historic garden district, I smell smells I have not noticed for a long time.
Was it that I was ignorant of the fact that the smells were there? Or could it possibly be that the humdrum daily routine I have had with thoughts flooding my mind, had veiled me to the reality of the smell’s abiding presence? The scent of our sweet dog, Lulu, a beautiful blonde canine that was half chow and half lab, lingers on the pillow beside me.
She has been gone nearly three years now, but somehow the scent of her smell lingers. She would irritatingly stretch me at times, when we left the house, thinking she would stay on the floor in our absence. However instead, we would return home quite frequently to find her sitting in my spot on the couch.
No matter how many times I would get onto Lulu it would fall on deaf ears. Then I finally comprehended I had to succumb to this comportment of hers for my own peace of mind. You have to choose your battles and in the scheme of things this one was unimportant.
It never occurred to me until this moment, of the waves of her smell under my nostrils, which welcome me like a friend bidding me to return to a certain place I had forgotten. The memories of her sweetness and the joy she brought to our family, are more precious than all the money in the world. Somehow her scent still dances in our apartment nearly three years after her passing. What is amazing is that I was unaware of these memories still present within my mind until I smelled her scent at this time coinciding to the crisis which has heightened in our nation.
Whether or not I realized it, Lulu found comfort in my presence, curling up for the 14 years we had her, on the red Asian rug, eyes continually stationed within my line of sight, where she could peep to get the titillations needed wrapping her in comfort. Moreover, the lack of my presence did not hinder this intrinsic need of meeting her comfort when upon my leaving, she would leap up onto our cherry stained sleigh couch with tuft pillows covered in a corduroy green. Somehow the scent of my presence would run up her nose, covering her with an invisible cloak of my presence.
This awareness of her scent was made known when I became super aware of the present. In this time of crisis around the globe, the big issue that is rising up is fear in some uncertain way, which is truly resident within the belief of who we are. We can try and justify that we are worried about the future, but in reality, it is still anchored in the construct of our own self-image.
A crisis is an opportunity for a wakeup call, for us to know who we are. Otherwise the business of our normal routine numbs us to the false reality we have comfortably accepted, believing that truth is the way WE see it, not comprehending the deficiencies of our own hindering beliefs.
Here is where we address mindfulness and the ability for us to be presently aware of our need to move out of survival mode and into living an adventure. In order to get to this transformative understanding, we have to study the panic attack.
The panic attack is a result of an intense stress response, which at many times begins in our hypothalamus, our processing center that then sends the messaging signaling throughout our bodies to the pituitary and then the adrenals. The adrenals release glucocorticoids. (I get into this in detail in my book, God’s Fire Wall School of the Prophets Session 4 the Spirit of Knowledge in the chapter on Stress.)
Once the adrenals release their hormones, one of which is cortisol, our brain is flooded in the hippocampus, which is the biggest repository of cortisol receptors, causing us to shut down. We are overwhelmed and knocked out of commission; we are trying to survive. This is not how we were meant to live. The stress response was given to us from God during times of life-threatening situations to provide us extraordinary strength to meet the demand for our need.
Two senses that bypass the hypothalamus’ decision-making skills in regard to whether or not our body goes into a stress response are smell and touch. Smell and touch go straight to our amygdala if it is a threatening situation, for which we have some corresponding memory to associate with it. The amygdala then sends the signaling for the stress response, where we are in a full-blown panic attack from our subconscious thoughts. The amygdala is analogous to SUPER SURVIVAL MODE, because it has files of intense memories, largely that of fear conditioning. What is also unique is that it is the place of reward reinforcement. Two ends of the spectrum, the amygdala functions to bring us into hyper awareness of our present, whether it be a false reality, or a true threat.
Thus, your amygdala can be a house of horror or a house of rest. This is the place of extraordinary caution, mindful of our emotions and thoughts, as well as our senses. It is for this reason that we cannot afford to get into fear. If there are unresolved memories lying dormant in our amygdala, a plethora of emotions will come spilling out and flood both our body and mind, bringing confusion as to what is really happening.
Our beliefs can be distorted because of these subconscious memories and the thing which stirs these hidden thoughts and images up most is FACIAL EXPRESSIONS. You heard me right! I write about this and teach on this issue in my book regarding dealing with someone who is suicidal, which I have 9 years of experience with. God led me to these intense studies so I could help my loved one.
As we finish here, it is in the Word of God where He tells Jeremiah and Ezekiel (Jeremiah 1; Ezekiel 3:9) that He will make their faces strong so as to keep them from being overwhelmed and confounded by the stares of others. Therefore, in this time know the LOVE OF CHRIST, and that it is that LOVE that is your reward! Be at peace knowing that God has you in His hands, and you are hidden in the cleft of the Rock, in order that you behold His glory, you know the beauty of His Holy Face, the WORD OF TRUTH, which drives out fear!
God’s Love, like a fragrance, dances up our nose to wrap us in His comfort and know that all is well!
God bless!
Robin Kirby-Gatto
18 There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet grown into love’s complete perfection]. 1 John 4:18 AMPC
14 [So I went with him, and when we were climbing the rocky steps up the hillside, my beloved shepherd said to me] O my dove, [while you are here] in the seclusion of the clefts in the solid rock, in the sheltered and secret place of the cliff, let me see your face, ]let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely. Song of Solomon 2:14 AMPC