Fear is so fundamental to the human condition that all the great spiritual traditions originate in an effort to overcome its effects on our lives. With different words, they all proclaim the same core message: “Be not afraid.” . . . . It is important to note with care what that core teaching does and does not say. “Be not afraid” does not say that we should not have  fears— and if it did, we could dismiss it as an impossible counsel of  perfection. Instead, it says that we do not need to be our fears, quite a different proposition.

Margaret Wheatley, Be not Afraid