I Must Not Fear

Published in Living Now Magazine June 2014

"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind killer.
Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration."

‘Litany against fear’ from Frank Herbert’s Dune

It happened in a millisecond like some giant hand had slapped the bike from under him. But some part of his mind had already slowed the whole scene down. Stretching time like a rubber band, making a mockery of the ridiculous notion of linear metaphysics. And there, buried deep in his psyche, long forgotten, was a memory.

A memory riddled with fear that instantly leapt into his stomach and began stabbing him from the inside out.

Could it be true? He asked as his body plunged towards imminent contact with the wooden boardwalk. Could it really be true? Had he lived the last ten years in fear?

“I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.”

Before he had a chance to contemplate the answer he crashed hips first onto the boardwalk with a sickening thud.

His breath wa…