"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood"

Those are wonderful lines from Marie Curie that I just read today. I have suffered from fear for a very long time in life. I grew up in a family where I never knew what emotion was going to explode or be used at any moment. I was also a victim of sexual abuse, so I remember as a child sometimes just cowering inside with fear...although on the outside I played the "tough guy"! I notice, still, that fear can have such a strong hand over how I think...what will happen in the future, what will happen with this action, did I do all I could, etc.... But what is so imporant here is that "it is only something that needs to be understood"---and then let go of. Though I'm talking about what happened to me in the past, just this year I was able to really let it go. My parnter and I visited my parents, and I was really able to stay open and loving. Everything was transformed...there was no fear, no anger...this was an example of "leaping beyond fear!" And as one of the scriptures says in the Soto Tradition: OM TO THE ONE WHO LEAPS BEYOND ALL FEAR! I'm not there yet, but I'm ready to leap...soon, someday WITHOUT FEAR!