The Repression

It is hitting close to home and some are falling and others are searching yet so many of us feel at a lost. It is a challenge to lose control of the future we thought we had clearly planned, isn't that what the "dream" was all about? A well planned itinerary, a fund for the children's college, retirement, a shiny car, perennial gardens, vacations that bronze the skin with a free drink in one hand and many hands massaging out the "kinks" of the life you escaped, low interest rates, diversified everything, assets, a boat for summer, ski gear for winter, the best preschool, time to volunteer, crisp, clean clothes, fresh sheets, a lawn where all the dandelions moved next door, matching silverware, a china cabinet and a piece of tupperware for every leftover you will never eat, isn't that what we were going for? This recession, depression -that I like to call the repression is changing us forever, my friends are without work, my friend's husband has left for 4 months to work- his son misses him, my friends are crying, wondering, growing food, despairing, taking sleeping pills, drinking on weeknights, my friends are leaving their husbands.......I am holding on to hope, I am called to help my friends. I am called to swap summer squash for tomatos, I am called to say thank you so it is heard, I am called to be available to hug,to listen,to care. I am called to give what I don't need, I am called to dig my feet in the earth and stand tall, I am called to count each and every blessing (even the blessings that hurt- the ones that grow roots while my branches are trimmed).