Kind Of Like Silly Putty

The ability to bounce back is essential for growth and well being.  Sometimes that bouncing back is simple and other times it seems like a task not even Sisyphus would attempt.  Arizona State University's Resilience Solutions Group based in the Downtown Center in Phoenix researches why some people or groups of people exhibit resilience and others do not.
In June, 2007, Adelheid Fisher wrote that "For people living in many of the small towns sprinkled across the American heartland, hope is the kind of four-letter word that is rarely used to describe the future. Family farmers are a dying breed as are the merchants on Main Street.  Reynolds, Indiana is different. Although its population has dwindled to 533 souls, and there are more hogs in the fields than kids in the local schools, Reynolds is reinventing itself.  In 2005, the State of Indiana declared Reynolds a BioTownUSA. The designation refers to the citizens' determination to kick their dependence on foreign oil. They generate power from resources in their own back yard–soybeans, used French fry oil, and pig manure. The residents are eager to embrace the future. More than 20 percent of them already have retrofitted their automobiles to run on alternative fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel."
If a town can be resilient so can each of us.
Part of resilience is hanging on to hope.  Another part is sustaining our interests, our motivation, and our direction in order to regain our own sense of momentum.
These are difficult times.  We will bounce back.  The important thing is to hang on not to what we've lost but to what we have and what we can achieve.