45 On Seeing Simple Truths

EXPERIENCE has taught us that there are gifts in life that most of us do not recognize as gifts. Sometimes we may have to stretch it a bit to understand them as gifts.


The gift of fear is the restoration of our capacity for wisdom and freedom.


By embracing our fears we gain the opportunity to notice what is life-destructive and what is life-enhancing. Both avenues of investigation require risk.


Peck says, in The Road Less Traveled,

“When We Extend Ourselves, Our Self Enters New And Unfamiliar Territory . . . The Experience Of Change, Or Unaccustomed Activity, Of Being On Unfamiliar Ground, Of Doing Things Differently Is Frightening . . . Courage Is Not The Absence Of Fear, It Is The Making Of An Action In Spite Of The Fear, The Moving Out Against The Resistance Engendered By Fear Into The Unknown And Into The Future.”