We'll be okay, really we will.

Last week was kind of emotionally difficult. It really started to bring me down, the incessant negative news, concerned calls from people, nervous people with mortgages and families, who are just now starting to feel and fear the domino effect of this horrible economy. Thanks to corporate greed and the inept leadership who blindly ran this country into the ground.

Everywhere I go, they're there. These little reminders that something big, really big and really scary is happening and no one knows how or when it's going to stop. Just thinking of listing all the increasingly bad things happening in the world right now is too depressing, and at times I’m feeling like I can’t escape it. Simply driving to my house, I'm reminded as I pass one barren car dealership after another and OPEN HOUSE! signs scattered throughout the neighborhood. How does one keep positive momentum when it feels like the walls are slowly closing in like the Death Star trash compactor scene in Star Wars? 

As a result, I've spent a lot of time this weekend reading and thinking. When I contemplate my life so far, it’s very clear the most difficult challenges I’ve faced have made me grow in the most beautifully raw and profound ways. I've overcome some things I really thought I couldn't, and when I’ve had the courage to follow my gut and face the uncomfortable, the bad and scary, it has turned out okay, even better than I expected. Always.

As a result, I’m stronger. I feel myself carrying more wisdom through each “event”, walking with more confidence and less fear and slowly shedding the facade I so strategically began building when I was a pure and innocent little girl who didn’t want to feel pain.

Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.”

When you think about it, George Bush was a gift. If we hadn't spent the past eight years feeling so weak, powerless, horrified and embarrassed by our president and the actions, or inaction, of our country's “leadership”, I don't think we would have come together in the ways we did to elect our first African-American President. It took horribly awful to create an awakening, and we’ve finally taken our first step towards a new direction.  

There are unavoidable challenges we’ll continue to face over the next few years in this country, and on this planet. Maybe we need this increasing horribleness to create a bigger awakening, not only for a healthy economy, but for the evolution of our collective consciousness. Maybe it takes the horrible to convince more of us get off our asses and actually DO something. Maybe we’ll get in touch with our true selves, develop into the kind of aware, empathetic and generous people we should be, and maybe, just maybe, we can actually solve many of the problems we currently face.

I'm headed to TED Palm Springs tomorrow and have a feeling something really good is going to happen there, I’ll keep you posted. If there’s anything we can do to help you, whether it's give you feedback on your work or advise you on your current situation, just ask and we’ll do our best to help you. For some inspiration when you need it, go to TED.com and watch a 20-minute speech given by incredible thinkers and doers. Here's one we love from a scientist who studies the brain, Jill Bolte Taylor. 

- Melanie