It’s on everyone’s mind…..it’s everywhere you go. Unless you’ve been living in a bunker for the past three months, there has been no way of getting away from it. Even over the holidays, somebody brought it up. What are we talking about? Call it what you wish…terrorism, suicide-bombings, or plain old Fear….it is on everyone’s mind, just about everywhere you go….spreading almost like a virus.

These past few months my e-mail correspondence has been full of people’s thoughts on what has happened to what we once considered “normal.” It’s affecting us all…in different ways. Some financially, some health wise….while others have chosen to say, “To heck with it, it doesn’t matter.” Well, guess what? We are all being affected by this.

We used to be disturbed by daily problems which we turned into huge mountains to overcome. Now these occurrences seem mundane. Last year our thoughts were on how to improve ourselves emotionally, financially, and physically….this year it’s not uncommon for someone to say to us, “Who knows what awaits us this year?” I know this is all negative thinking, but it is, for many, very real. Unless we look at what is happening, we cannot find ways to combat the situation. It kind of reminds me of a fighter that has been knocked down, brushes himself off, gets up, and gets hit again, and before he knows it, he is flat back on the canvas. While we are down, and before we get up, we must find ways to try to avoid the next punch. Two weeks ago a man decided to board an airplane in Paris with explosives in his sneakers. The next day everyone getting on an airplane had to take their shoes off, which led one security expert to state, “What’s next….if explosives are found in a person’s underwear, do we all have to fly nude?” This morning on the news it was reported that a fifteen year old boy took off in a small airplane without permission, and crashed headlong into the Bank of America building in Tampa, Florida. Instantaneously images of 9/11 were shoved in our faces once again. Where once the planes were flown by foreign terrorists, they are now being flown by fifteen year old American boys….the virus has spread. Who was this boy? Why did he do it? Was he crazy……or on a mission? The experts seem baffled….

So here we are, down on the canvas, knowing that when we get up, perhaps our opponent will have a fresh new punch to deliver. What do we do to protect ourselves? Number 1: Stay as healthy as possible. Number 2: Be alert, and informed. Number 3: Faith and Belief are the strongest shields. Number 4: Be prepared, like Y2K….nothing happened, but we were ready. Number 5: Have some good old-fashioned FUN…..nothing chases away Fear more than laughter.
If we were to have told someone about this current situation two years ago, they would have told us that we’d lost our minds. We now know all this is very real. And for these times, denial is not a friend. This virus can be cured….once it is studied and understood. All viruses have a beginning…many times, that is where the cure can be found.

Stay healthy,
love, Jennifer Avalon
© 2002 Jennifer Avalon