Sometimes an image just happens to come to you. It appears as if by magic at your feet, and in this case it literally did. Even more amazing is when an image just captivates your imagination and conveys to you exactly what you are feeling.

Such was the case with this photo of twisted sage brush in the Eastern Sierra. It was captured several weeks ago as the U.S. government was approving the 750 Billion dollar Wall Street bailout. As fear gripped the nation, many were feeling like they were being strangled, and in fact some were so over come by fear that they not only took their own lives but the lives of their spouses and children. Maybe this image appeared to me because deep down that is what I was feeling – that I was being strangled. One thing is for sure with me; camping out in the Eastern Sierras was exactly what I needed to ground myself. Those massive mountains, the rivers that flowed through the canyons, the trees that were glowing in their autumn attire, were most certainly not afraid of anything. Not even the snow storm that moved through on the first night that I spent there could sway them, in fact the dusting of snow that they carried, only made them glow that much more!

Now isn’t that what mothers are for – to reassure you that everything was going to be OK? And for those few days I communed with Mother Earth, she did just that for my soul. God revealed in the Quran “Do not kill your children out of a fear of poverty, We shall provide for them and for you. Indeed killing them is a great sin“. The majority of people in this world live in poverty. People in India, Bangladesh, numerous countries in Africa, like Somalia, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, South American coutnries like Costa Rica, Haiti, El Salvador and many more all around the world, all live in poverty. Its funny, but they are not afraid of this great financial meltdown, for them its just another day. Another day of struggle and hardship, but its life to them. They get by, and in truth, I don’t think they even care about how hard they have it. In reality, we don’t need very much to actually get by day to day. If we can go to bed at night with a belly of food, and wake up to the same with some decent shelter to keep the rain out of our boots and sun off of our back, what more do we really need? Really?

The “middle class” person today who lives in a modest home is probably living better than the kings of the middle ages – kings mind you. When you look around, every living thing has its sustinence. A bird wakes in the morning with an empty crop and comes back to its nest in the evening with its crop full. Where did it get all of it? Are we any different? If we go out into the world and make an honest effort at a liveilyhood we will always come back with what we need – we just have to have trust that God will provide.

So the next time you feel like you are being strangled under the pressure of mounting fears of a crumbling financial system remember – FEAR stands for False Events Appearing Real. And we have nothing to fear but fear itself, I think someone important once said that.