The Pain Is in the Past

Many of us spend our whole lives running from feeling with the mistaken belief that you cannot bear the pain. But you have already borne the pain; what you have not done is feel all you are beyond the pain. —Saint Bartholomew

Do you fear you cannot bear a dreaded pain?
Think about it. If you know what the pain is,
fear you will feel it, isn’t it true you know the pain,
have gone through it already but fail to realize
it’s a thing of the past, not the future. Stop,
examine the truth, and know you have
come through to the other side.
Understand the wonder of the truth
that you have emerged to the other side
and feel the relief, the joy? of reaching the other side,
of being on the other side.
Franklin Roosevelt spoke to fearful people
when he said at his first Inaugural address,
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
What are you afraid of? Have you already
faced the fear?

Franklin D. Roosevelt (public domain)