What guides you when you can’t see the road ahead? Can fear be harnessed to nurture our growth rather than stunt it? Join the #MedHumChat community for a discussion on Emotional Strength While Facing Uncertainty. The pieces for the chat along with the discussion questions were curated by Dr. Margot Hedlin (@MargotHedlin).

Adam Johnson: Trauma Plate

Selected Excerpt:

“There is a freedom that comes with doom, and lately we use our large lot to play Frisbee in the evening or football in the near-dark, with Ruthie always outrunning one of us for the long bomb. Some nights the Filipinos who own the water store drift out under the awnings to watch us. They wipe their brows with apron ends and seem to wonder what kind of place this America is.

Honestly, I've lost most of my spirit in the fight against the Emporium. When we opened, we were cutting edge, we were thinking franchise. Our customers were middle class, people like us; they still wanted to believe but understood that, hey, once in a while you needed a little insurance. Their lives were normal, but nobody went out on New Years without a vest. To buy a vest ten years ago was to admit defeat, to say what's out there isn't just knocking at the door-it's upstairs, using your toothbrush, saying good morning to your wife.”

William Stafford: For My Young Friends Who Are Afraid

There is a country to cross you will
find in the corner of your eye, in
the quick slip of your foot--air far
down, a snap that might have caught.
And maybe for you, for me, a high, passing
voice that finds its way by being
afraid. That country is there, for us,
carried as it is crossed. What you fear
will not go away: it will take you into
yourself and bless you and keep you.
That's the world, and we all live there.