I took a vacation from the news recently. It had not been my intention to take a vacation from the news. It was my intention to spend a weekend in the Cities with my daughter and her husband resting and relaxing. My weekend was a needed get away from the daily stresses of life that we all face.

I had a great weekend. We took long walks around the lake in Como Park. We took time to read and watch movies and talk. Of course we included some coffee houses in our weekend, as they are wonderful places to relax and chat. I did not hear about gas prices, the high cost of health insurance, the high unemployment rate, the war in Iraq or the high cost of food. Those also were subjects that did not reach our conversations. I forgot I had any problems. I did not worry about anything. Life was pretty good.

Then I came home, back to reality. The first thing I heard when the alarm went off was the news of the day. The knots in my stomach started. I ventured to my place of employment. Each and every person that walked in the door was talking about bad news.

The stories were the same. People were worried they were not going to be able to drive to work, keep their businesses, keep food on their table and be able to afford their health insurance. The frenzy continued as we received news that the price of gas was going up 10 cents within the hour. Gas prices were going to continue to rise 5 cents per day every day until the Fourth of July. We needed to quickly fill up out gas tanks with gas.

One person said that they were sick every day with worry and they were talking physically sick. The knots in my stomach were pulling tighter. What had changed from the weekend? Where had my peace, happiness and worry-free life that I led on the weekend gone? Our fear seemed to feed off of one another.

Actually nothing had changed from the weekend except the way I chose to participate in my life. My daughter and her husband listened to the news the weekend I visited.

They do not watch all of the news. They record it and they listen to the weather, the sports, and important news stories, but they chose to not dwell on the bad parts of the news. They are aware, but they chose to not play the headlines over and over again. They chose to work with the parts they can do something about and let the parts of the news that they cannot control go.

They are aware of the gas prices, the health insurance, the unemployment rate, and the high cost of food. They are very aware. They live in a one-bedroom apartment and have to be frugal with their money. They do not live a lavish lifestyle, but they are happy because they do not let the headlines play in their head hour after hour. The weekend I visited I did the same thing. I thought life was great until I came home and changed the headlines in my head.

It is a very scary time. Everything we have known seems to be falling apart. People are losing their homes and their jobs. People are struggling to put food on the table. Our way of life is changing and changing fast. Could it be that the fear we feel is the fact that we do not know if we are strong enough to weather this crisis in our country and in our lives? Have we lost faith in ourselves?

We don’t want our lifestyle to change. We don’t want to struggle and for those that have already been struggling the bottom seems to be here.

We want someone to fix our problems fast. I don’t think anyone knows how or if they do they can’t get past their party structure to work together to fix our problems. Maybe it has to start with us. We need to believe that we are strong. We need to have faith in ourselves. Panic feeds our fear and weakens us. We need to learn how to be survivors.

My parents survived the Depression. They survived gas rationing and wars. My parents and many of your parents, in spite of what had to have been fear in their hearts, survived many hard times. They were more self-sufficient than we are today. Their generation had gardens and farms where they raised their own meat and produce. Extended families banded together and helped each other. The people who lived during the Depression did not have it easy, but they had faith in themselves and they survived. They found ways to survive. We will, too.

I needed a retreat from thinking about the problems we are all having today. We want a perfect life, but no one has that in reality. We all have problems. Each person’s problem may be different, but each person’s problem is no less important to him or her. We have all had hard times at some point in our lives. If you are reading this you must have survived those problems. You are strong.

When you feel the fear overwhelming you take a mind retreat. Maybe you can’t take a weekend retreat but try taking an hour away from the news and the bills and the worries that you have about the future.

Focus on something that makes you happy. Everyone has something positive in his or her life if you chose to look for it. Wiggle your toes, stick out your tongue, and roll your eyes. If you can do any of those things, however small they are, that is a positive in your life. Remember you are strong!

Wells resident Julie Seedorf’s column appears every Monday. Send e-mail to her at

thecolumn@bevcomm.net.