“Fight or flight” instincts are deeply ingrained in our human psyches. When faced with a threat, our first impulse is to either eliminate or escape from the perceived enemy. Perhaps we have lashed out when we feel personally attacked by a colleague or family member, or maybe we have gone silent in a texting thread or email correspondence when a friendship no longer feels safe. Whatever the case may be, the good news is that we do not have to be enslaved to such a bipolar way of life. We can decide today to follow the narrow way (Mt 7:14) that holds these two instincts in tension long enough and tightly enough to produce some new way of being. We will discover that we are capable of confrontations that establish the boundaries necessary for relationships and at the same time soul-searching that establishes a constant interior sanctuary. In this way, our true animal nature will emerge as women and men who live by the new motto of “connection and perfection.” Ave Crux, Spes Unica!
