May 24, 2026
“A Way Through” by LKV Walsh
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The wisest man I know said yet another stunning thing to me today. My friend will be 95 in a few months, and his time is currently spent hanging out with all that his life has taught him. Today, he said, “The thing about fear is that there is no not feeling it.”
I can’t help but write that last sentence again. He said, “The thing about fear is that there is no not feeling it.”
I got a heavy dose of that lesson this past week as I traveled on a volcanic island. It turns out that islands created by volcanoes tend to be very high in the middle where the volcano is and then also to end at the sea. And the in-between part tends to be very, very steep. Traveling by car in that terrain harrowed me despite the excellent roads and the concrete barriers…despite the fact that I trust the driver completely. Nonetheless, no matter how certain intellectually I was that I was safe, my body simply would not/could not believe it. I did not freak out; I talked myself through it; I took deep breaths and did not even startle. But the next day, I could hardly move. The stress my body experienced meant that despite all my breathing and rationalizing and smiling, I still released all the same hormones that I would have had I screamed all the way down the side of the mountain. And I spent the next few days with what I will call “fear flu” – aching and stiff and exhausted. Because the thing about fear is that there is no not feeling it.
This is, I think, what all wisdom traditions want to teach us. It is never about seeking a life in which nothing scary or painful happens. It is also not about “getting on top of” or “getting over” the fear or the pain. And even when we use all our tools to self-soothe and we keep bravely walking, we still have to honor that the body knows what happened. So instead of pushing the fear and its impacts away, wisdom traditions that exhort us to “be not afraid” and that offer “peace be with you” are probably asking us to acknowledge the fear and pain and just not let it be ALL that there is. We don’t need to be tough; it wouldn’t actually protect us anyway. We just have to be honest. And then we have to let it hurt. And then we have to let it go. Because the thing about fear is that there is no not feeling it. But the flu almost always responds to our being tender with ourselves – to our choosing to rest and to drink more water. Even, it turns out, the fear flu.
To Walk with Saints and Scholars 
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