Yesterday I wrote about the fear that the Pandemic has brought and I quoted the scripture from I John 4:18--"There is no fear in love; but perfect love castes out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love." I encountered this verse very early in my spiritual journey. I was young and wanted to understand love. I also felt the fears of a young woman trying to make her way through through the world of jobs, education, and relationships. I was immediately intrigued by the verse, but frankly could not really see the connection between fear (in it's instinctual intensity) and love (and all it's variety of meanings and emotions). I wasn't satisfied with a superficial glossing of the idea of conquering fear by forcing myself to love the unlovable. Through my training in Psychiatry, I accepted the idea of "becoming perfect" in love or anything else as wishful, distorted thinking that actually undermines mental health and resiliency. Yet there was something in the verse that held me and overtime, many, many years, it returned again and again as a kind of mantra. I came to just accept that "love" was an antidote for fear and meant different things at different times. After 45 years of meditation practice, I can say, "There is no fear in love." But this love is not the emotion we commonly mean when we use the word. So "love" is an inadequate expression for the delight and awe of life in its infinite forms --an awareness or state--sometimes only momentary--where fear is not possible. Those collected moments generate fortitude. (Susan Nettleton)