Act Constructively

Our worries may zoom outward about the state of world.

"What happens if the economy plummets? If the ozone layer keeps increasing? If we have more anthrax attacks? If the terrorists take over the country? If we lose our civil liberties fighting the terrorists?"

Here, too, our creative writing ability leads to fantastic scenarios that may or may not happen, but regardless, we manage to work ourselves into a state of unprecedented despair. This, in turn, often leads to raging anger at the powers that be or to apathy, simply thinking that since everything is rotten, there's no use doing anything.

In either case, we're so gloomy that we neglect to act constructively in ways that remedy difficulties and create goodness.

by Thubten Chodron