Fear of losing control:
	We struggle, fight, and cling to familiarity
	When life carries us gently in its arms

I'm very prone to worrying about being in the grip of events beyond my
control. I've had my fair share; my wife nearly died in childbirth,
I've been stuck in places with no easy means of transport home more
times than I care to mention, my family of three had to spend a year
out of our house after it was damaged in the 2007 Gloucestershire
floods, I just about break even financially each month so appliances
and vehicles age until they die, then I have to scrape together money
to improvise a repair or second-hand replacement with new faults
awaiting my discovery a few months down the line...

But, hard as it may be, I know that being miserable when this happens
just makes the experience worse. I can't really afford to cling to
what I have and know; I can never tell what part of it I'm going to
lose next. I am trying to teach myself to be serene, as life moves
around me. After all, all these 'traumatic' things have happened, and
yet I have only emerged stronger from them.

Here's a few quotes for you:

    I must not fear.
    Fear is the mind-killer.
    Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
    I will face my fear.
    I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
    And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
    Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
    Only I will remain.

 - The Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear

    Empty your mind of all thoughts.
    Let your heart be at peace.
    Watch the turmoil of beings,
    but contemplate their return.

    Each separate being in the universe
    returns to the common source.
    Returning to the source is serenity.

    If you don't realise the source,
    you stumble in confusion and sorrow.
    When you realise where you come from,
    you naturally become tolerant,
    disinterested, amused,
    kind-hearted as a grandmoter,
    dignified as a king.
    Immersed in the wonder of the Tao,
    you can deal with whatever life brings you,
    and when death comes, you are ready.

 - Verse 16 of the Tao Te Ching (Stephen Mitchell translation)