Issue #46 | January 2017
A Note from the Team
Hi All,
Each year, January 1st brings a wave of resolutions. People feel a fresh wave of energy to transform their lives and set intentions to improve their health, relationships, finances, etc. Then time marches on and things... get harder. Our intentions start to feel less shiny and urgent, and eventually many folks wind up stuck in their old habits.
This pattern of waning enthusiasm is often mirrored in disaster preparedness and response work. Immediately after disasters there is often a surge in interest for taking on expensive mediation projects (anyone remember the Hurricane Ike dike?), and after an exciting training, volunteers feel ready to single-handedly take on all the preparedness work for their dioceses. However, in a world of thousands of completing priorities, disaster preparedness and resilience building often slips to the bottom of the to-do list. We encounter obstacles and become discouraged.
But there is hope! Resilience building is all about long-term behavior change, so popular psychology about how to stick to New Year’s resolutions comes in handy. We know that having a support team, picking specific and realistic goals and not beating yourself up over setbacks all help to realize your goals. Aim for slow, incremental progress with tiny victories rather than trying to transform all at once.
We hope that this year you will celebrate the kind of resilience building that you can do in a couple of hours just as much as you celebrate your long term goals. Small amounts of time and effort accumulate, and your communities will be safer as a result.
Wishing you a happy and safe 2017.
In Peace,
Katie, Lura, Sara & Tamara
O God, our times are in your hand: Look with favor, we pray, on us as begin another year. Grant that we may grow in wisdom and grace, and strengthen our trust in your goodness all the days of our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
—adapted from The Book of Common Prayer, p. 830
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