While talking with a friend last week, she wondered how I could deal with the negative health factors I have been experiencing the last fourteen months, on top of job-search difficulties, loss of hard fought for gains in services for persons with disabilities and a dismal looking economy for 2004.

One of the biggest issues that several job hunting friends faced was the significant number of applicants for the same position.  In several cases there was a feeling of lack of employment consideration due to their disability.  Obviously, with the number of able-bodied individuals laid off or downsized and in the job market, it is sometimes easy to think that way.

Those searching, dependent on mainline bus services or Metro Mobility have or will experience reduced hours of service.  Gas price increases have impacted those using vans and older vehicles with less mileage capabilities, thus reducing opportunities to use those dollars for other needs.  Knowing the current economic situation and that the overall job market opportunities for everyone is diminished helps for awhile.  However, when that knowledge is blunted by long-term job searches, no interview opportunities or even a suspected feeling of change in the near future, it is very difficult to be positive and have the inner strength to keep trying.

Friends, former work colleagues, family members and faith communities, if they are present, can all be resources for support and strength renewal.  If we are lucky enough to have these supports, we can keep plugging along and eventually reach our goals.  For those individuals feeling less supported, it is okay to ask for help.  It is okay to let others know how you are feeling.  It is okay to share the path with others.

Our inner strength or sense of worth can and will be tested if it hasn’t been already.  All we can do is face each day knowing that yesterday is over, and that we have a new shot at a better today.  We may be able to look around and see that there are others in a more tenuous position than we are.  Perhaps, we can reach out to them, thus knowing we made their day a bit better.  By doing so, our inner-self will help us feel better about who we are and what our value is.

I have found, just as others have, that these acts of sharing with others in need comes back to me as a surge of strength that enables me to continue moving toward my own goals.  While the environment around us is out of our control, we have the ability to make choices, adjust goals, control our own actions and maintain ownership of our inner-spirit.  For me, it is how I dealt with the last fourteen months of being essentially down at home or in the hospital going through surgery.

Let us all take the spirit within us to continue seeing the needs that are around us as we renew our feelings of being alive as a capable and fortunate individual.