LOVE VS FEAR

Looking down the street from in front of my house.

I get a little intense in this post - which is about my belief system - and it being shaken up a little lot, so you might not want to read further.

Just sayin. 

out front - from my upstairs (playroom) window

I just wrote a page about some safety issues we're having here in our barrio, Los Nogales, in Barranquilla... and decided it was too negative to put into print - so I deleted it. It was doing me harm to think about it enough to put it into writing. So I rewrote. Still pretty negative.

The wall which surrounds our neighbor's house...taken from my play room window. (2nd story).

You see, I'm not a scaredy cat but a few things happened last week that had me wanting to run back to the USA...PRONTO. 

The wall which surrounds our neighbor's house...taken from my play room window. (2nd story).

Let me just say that people here sometimes become desperate enough to steal in order to eat...or maybe in order to party. 

I don't know. 

The wall which surrounds our neighbor's house...taken from my play room window. (2nd story).

They like to use guns and knives to get what they want. 

This is one of the good guys.

Now, I believe, that we get what we focus on. 

Taken at my daughter's maid's house. The maid's name is Eneida.

So even though these things are happening here, usually I can shrug it off and remind myself that...
I AM protected. I AM safe. I am secure. 

And my family and home are, of course, included. 

The view from my second floor back window.

I don't usually dwell on negative. 

Again...across from Eneida's (the maid's) house.

We use the bus system, I go out and walk the streets whenever and where ever I want to and we just live here. I feel free!

I'm usually with my hubby, but I go out often alone. 

Another view from one of my upstairs windows.

I like to look people in the eye and smile and say hello and appreciate them. 

Sometimes I even love them. 

I trust them and try to be compassionate and you know what? I get the same right back. 

Until last week when I saw an attempted robbery in front of my house and heard of another one - the guy got the goods this time - near my daughter's. 

I'm talking about the streets that we walk up and down to bring Sophia back and forth from house to school to house. 

Ugh. Sick feeling. 

And then...probably because I was allowing fear to CONTROL me...a couple nights ago, one of the 7...yes SEVEN locks that are on our front gates was broken. 

We do have a security man that walks the neighborhood at night.

If the perpetrator knew the next one was bigger and stronger he probably wouldn't have taken the time with the first. Who knows? 

In Eneida's neighborhood...you shop through the gate.

For the first time since we moved here...and this has happened before...only he got into the front yard last time and stole a motor...I wanted to move. NOW. LEAVE. Vamos! 
 

view from an upstairs window

Now you see why I deleted the first post. Sick feeling. Only the first description was more graphic. 

Our taxi driver was afraid to go further so he dropped the 5 of us off here to walk several blocks to Eneida's (Hillary's maid's) house.

I said all that to say this. I am safe. I am protected. I am secure. I am loved. 

And...I am so thankful that I can be near my granddaughter, daughter and her hubby. I am thrilled that we can afford to travel to the States a couple times a year because the cost of living is less here. 

I am so very grateful that we are here...learning a new language and culture...looking strangers in the eye...smiling...and sometimes loving them. 

I am happy and I will focus on all the treasure and gifts that are part of my awesome life and I will overcome fear when it rears it's ugly head. 

This is what I say I believe so I AM going to live it. 

I'll bloom where I'm planted.

I AM the one the world has been waiting for. Peace begins right here, with me. Right now. 

From an upstairs window.

I will love. Fear has no place here. 

I AM practicing love. 

This moment is the point of power. 

I am telling myself...and you...right now - that I am. 

I am.