Hi, nice to have you back. I appreciate your comments so much. I like how you clarified it better-- by replacing "fear" with "confidence". We do get lost and smaller along the way. As long as we come back, I think the lessons are very valuable. I think getting older makes you freer and I want to be in that group. I agree with your ideas on perceptions, expectaions and reality. While intellectulaly I know its my choice to experience things in a certain way, the fog was very deep. I can see more options now. I think alot has to do with our recent cultural shifts that forced me to see things differently. The great and obvious, is our new president and what he stands for. I was so used to shutting Bush and his policies out, so disappointed in what "we" had become. I felt hopeless. While working for the Obama campaign, I was hopefull, but had NO idea how rejuvenating his becoming president would be. Secondly, the economy has forced me to "see" things more realistically and in a more healthful way. I'm single and rent and live in an expensive place that I love. Shopping was a form of therapy, it does feel good to have new shoes and clothes. But I have cut WAY back and it feels really good as well. The uncertainty of having a job, my current paycheck, what I'll do instead, etc-is while scary, energizing as well. We should question more. Hence the return to the hippie life style for lack of better terminology, I guess. I think so many of us are going through this that the miraculous shift is tangible. I love it. It's challenging...