Love is really the only healing balm there is…

I see that Jeff, Dixie and Paul have “smeared” love all over their efforts to assist people. Rapid Cash Marketing is BOUND to be a help to everyone who is open to receiving assistance and willing to embrace some new notions.

Doom and gloom should be recognized, then reckoned with! Thanks to Jeff, Dixie and Paul for their contribution to solutions for weighty problems.

Honestly? I think “OK, I have to think and act more creatively, more positively. Our nation has been through this before. We can come together and do it again.”

I have been unemployed and out of the system for over 6 months now. I know that the numbers are reflecting the “newly unemployed” and that number is growing. There are those of us that are below the radar and no longer counted. Resources are thinning; some days the anxiety is wrenching. I then turn my thoughts to find the things that I am grateful for and start from there. There is always something that puts the smile back on my face and the spark back in my day. Often it is the kindness of a person that has touched me in some way.

Obama’s plan gives me a lot of hope. People such as Jeff, Dixie and Paul give me hope. The ideology of being part of a community assisting each other and not letting any one truly disappear off the charts is what, in my opinion, it is going to take. I see the ground swell of neighbor helping neighbor, reaching out and making sure that each can make it. Teaching, sharing, grouping together to support each other as a true community. Problem solving, assisting and offering help when someone no longer feels like they can ask. Sharing resources – I believe there is an abundance – creating the flow of good by passing it forward, allowing others to return the gift and give where they are able.

Asking for help is not easy for me, especially when I have never been in this position before. I can only imagine that it is difficult for others as well. We are used to having a surplus and getting to share it. Now the tables are turning. Knowing that my government with Obama in the leadership position, will be anticipating the economic problems, finding ways to fend off trouble and offering viable solutions brings relief, hope and peace of mind.

As a nation we have been experiencing great affluence. As a people we have been aspiring to “have it all.” I believe in the times ahead that folks will genuinely reach out to one another and though the times may appear to be “worse” the times will reawaken the qualities of human beings that make us proud. I am excited to be living in this time and expect to be a better person because of it.

Like Cathy says above, “If we all work together wonderful things will happen.”

Terry

The infrastructure spending will help keep the economy growing in the long term, but it would also be helpful if Congress could find a way to encourage businesses to invest in infrastructure as well. Possibly they could do this by making sure there are fewer unnecessary regulations that dissuade businesses from making those investments. There seem to be many businesses that have money to invest, but not as many that are actively investing in any forward-thinking enterprise. Hopefully Congress can find ways to get that money flowing.

The tax cuts on businesses would certainly be helpful, especially on small businesses or businesses in sectors where there is potential for significant job creation. We need the businesses like that to be able to resume their traditional role as the engine of our economy. The government can certainly assist the process getting started, but businesses will actually provide the growth.

I think the aid to the state governments is also needed, because the programs that the state governments support are needed for sustained growth. For instance, the state governments support schools and public workforce training programs. It is important to make sure both of those programs survive to make sure we are able to provide workers for whichever sectors of the economy are providing the jobs.

I recently saw that the Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is working with Congress to make sure that they take these things into account when they are designing the stimulus package. They have a petition that I encourage everyone to sign to make sure Congress knows that we want the economy fixed – but we want it fixed for the long-term – http://www.friendsoftheuschamber.com/takeaction/index.cfm?ID=76

I feel powerful just thinking about that.

Am I struggling?? Yes.

Am I scared?? Kind of.

But I am choosing to keep positive and moving forward and taking action to move myself and everyone around me forward.

I have been hearing for months from pretty much every source out there that “it is going to get worse before it gets better”. Maybe so. Probably so. But HOW much worse is the real question, and we won’t know that till we are looking back at it…so why fret, worry, and burden myself with something I can’t control. I have heard the expression that worry is just praying for something that you DON’T want to have happen. I think that’s true. What I CAN control is my mind and attitude.

So I keep as positive as I can. I try to keep supporting local businesses and putting what little I have back out into circulation so that we don’t all perpetuate the problems by starving ourselves and each other.

Things WILL get better. I believe they can only get better, and any of the “worse” that is going to come first will be a bump in the road.

Taking action, helping myself, and helping others gives me a tremendous feeling of power and control over my own life. I realize that no matter what, I CAN get through this and I can help other people see that they can to.

If we all work together, wonderful things will happen.

Cathy