Date: June 5th 2008

When you hear the word "Syria" what thoughts and feelings come to mind? Are they warm and fuzzy thoughts, or thoughts with a bit of fear? If there is some fear in those thoughts where did it come from? Who put it there?

Ahmad the hotel owner in Aleppo Syria tells tale after tale of the absurd fears (to his mind) westerners have while traveling in Syria. Yesterday two young American women tried to pretend to be Canadian.
"Anyone could see that they were California girls," Ahmad declared. "I took them around in the market and eventually they learned that the shop-keepers gave them just as many treats when they admitted their real nationality as when they claimed to be from elsewhere.

"But everything is confused," he continued. "I watched the Western journalists deliberately mistranslate a Lebanese woman's statements on television just the other day. When asked about a local youth organization she replied in Arabic that they provide much charitable aid and are very helpful to the local people. But the English version broadcast on the BBC made it sound as if she was afraid of them and had claimed that they were some kind of terrorist organization. She said nothing like that whatsoever!"

The Peruvian woman who is traveling with her German husband tells us, "We were a bit afraid to come, but we wanted to challenge ourselves." They are immersed in the light hearted conversation taking place in the small hotel lobby where tea is always freely served and laughter is the common theme. They now feel a bit foolish that they had any fear at all. "But we are fed the same stories on the news in Germany that are broadcast all over the Western world!"

Unspoken unconscious assumptions: how much are these controlling our thoughts and feelings and where did they come from?
"Unconscious assumptions create emotions in the body which in turn generate mind activity and/or instant reactions. In this way they create your personal reality. Unexamined thoughts give rise to emotional story telling." --Eckhart Tolle

The solution: "Let go of the story and return to the present moment."
Easier said than done, but it can't hurt to try.
Belief in other peoples' stories seems to be the culprit. And this is just another story.
Love, Kristina

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