beautiful girls

Health care anyone? Everyone? It is fascinating, maddening, and unnerving to watch our countrymen respond in this challenging time. Fear is very close to the surface as we feel threatened by the economic collapse, and credit card companies ratchet up interest rates and penalties for stepping over the line. People with health insurance find it rescinded just when they really need it. The health care (or is that health scare?) maze confounds everyone.

One technique to manage fear is to imagine the worst, accept it, and do what you can to improve upon that. In the grip  of emotions such as fear, anger and rage, we don’t think rationally and, therefore, don’t see our various options clearly.

The support of a healthy community is a vital resource. Hardwick, Vermont, by cooperatively developing organic agriculture and artisnal cheese making, helped a struggling community capture a profitable niche. Bailout Antidote envisions communities that are strengthened by their connections to each other.

A tent city in Providence, Rhode Island, under the leadership of a “chief” established standards of behavior that create cohesion, predictability and order. Members who violate the community’s written rules are kicked out.

Pain, the Great Teacher, offers valuable lessons as we live through this breathtaking, painful episode. Now is the time to test our mettle. Responding with dignity and creativity or looking for a scape goat is a crucial indicator to how you will grow from this experience.

As jobs, homes, pensions, loved ones, and “stuff,” are lost, we will look back with a far different perspective on what was really important and what we really needed after all. To the extent that we can shed our emotional burdens, and learn to triumph over pain and loss, we will travel lighter and feel liberated in the long run. Creating or strengthening your community connections increases your resilience and your odds of making good choices that will benefit you and your family.