**I would really like to hear some realistic, grounded, but hopeful thoughts about everything going on in the world right now.** I am struggling to find hope or purpose in the world anymore with so many different severe crises make life hard, and casting a pall on the future. I feel that my future has been robbed from me, and I struggle to see a future where things won’t be grim and difficult.  

There are a lot of big problems I have no control over that really impact my life. I struggle to have motivation because I can only focus on the short term, and in the short term I’m very stressed out and not happy. Doing little things to cope isn’t really enough; I feel like I’m treading water and hoping I don’t drown soon. I often feel helpless a because I can’t make long terms plans because things are too unstable. I want to believe that things will change, but honestly it doesn’t seem like that is happening. I struggle with feeling hopeless about how little control I have over my life, and the apparent trajectory of the forces that govern my opportunities.  

\- 40 hours a week doesn’t seem like enough to live on anymore, and the economy has made work a crucible of pressure and stress. I’m watching everyone in my life slowly come apart at the seams because of it.

\- On a broader level, the US economy seems deeply troubled, but there doesn’t seem any consensus about what’s going on. A lot of people are saying the economy may get worse and there could be a new depression.  

\- The US government is just a bad mess; things are less democratic now. The country is extremely divided, and I find it often impacts everyday life a lot. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but there are an awful lot of angry and misinformed people, some of whom talk a lot about violence. It’s definitely concerning; it’s hard for me to see how these division could be mended.

\- In the long run, current data seems to suggest that severe climate change is unavoidable and will devastate the planet, slowly but surely. It seems like all that I can do is hope that I will die before we cross the threshold into environmental collapse. I don’t like to think about it because it is too grim and hopeless.  

**So where is the silver lining?** Realistically, how are things going to not get desperate for many years to come? Maybe my whole life? How can you live with things as they are and neither feel like shit, nor bury your head in the sand?