Soft, open bodies

Fear is a universal experience.

Even the smallest insect feels it.

We wade in the tidal pools and put our finger near the soft, open bodies of sea anemones and they close up.

Everything spontaneously does that.

It’s not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown.

It is part of being alive, something we all share.

We react against the possibility of loneliness,

of death,

of not having anything to hold on to.

Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.

-Pema Chodron

I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.

Only I will remain.

-Dune