Life at the ECWT office can be pretty fun! (Anyone is invited to stop by, have some coffee / tea, and sign the Brag Board.)

But sometimes it can be pretty heavy.  Folks laugh about sending “hundreds of resumes,” but it’s not really a laughing matter. Someone brings in a newspaper with a depressing headline: unemployment goes up, benefits run out, people lose their houses.

One of the ECWT regulars was a bit down this week.   We talked about how our pace has increased since those first days weeks ago when we sat around tables asking each other, “So, what are you experiencing?”

Now we’re getting seeds, and finding garden-buddies and setting up list serves, contacting neighborhood groups, attending meetings in Nappanee and Middlebury, developing the next program . .  we’re busy.  We don’t check in with each other as often.

“I don’t mind working hard,” this person said, “even though I’m not getting anything done on my job search.  But what gets me depressed is not knowing: Will it work?”

None of us know if this will work, in face of the gathering clouds of foreclosures , continuing layoffs, personal depression and members of our community forced to move away.

What we do know is that we have no choice but to try. Only working together will bring us through this crisis as one community.

David