Fear is a companion easily found at this time globally, in Canada, and even in the real estate market. It leads me to contemplate the reasons why, I tend to settle most comfortably with the answer that leads me back to the importance of “staying in our own lane” when we venture out of our lane we tend to try and augment outcomes that we have no business trying to change, and in reality, if we dealt with the responsibilities that are only our own, we may be less afraid. Whom do we look to to take care of us as adults if we haven't been taught to take care of ourselves or had the path prepared for us? Likely the answer is government. 

I have a shadow-self, as we all do. I am not sure if I am proud of that part of me but I am learning to hear her, welcome her into my thoughts and get curious about what her problem is. I am learning to accept her and instead of hide her from the world I now temper her with acknowledgement and support. She is a social justice warrior and struggles with imbalance and abuse of power, the oppression of those who are marginalized and the reluctance to speak up for those that try but are not heard or accredited with importance. I call her my autonomy vigilante. She seeks ultimate independence and she tires before the tempers. She is learning to manage the “over-reachers” and the “boundary-less” as she becomes more integrated and less wounded, she becomes less afraid and I become more autonomous.  
 

How do we temper our fears and reactions? I believe the keys lie in education and autonomy and we cannot work toward autonomy if we are chained to debt and trying to maintain a lifestyle at our maximum thresh-hold. We are borrowing massive amounts of money for pieces of real estate that we don’t value but that we are pressured to win, we have lines of credit and credit cards that we must use to survive instead of to thrive. We no longer know how to fix cars, bikes, appliances and goods and we source the repair work out and pay for it with money that isn't our own. We work hard to pay a mortgage only to be told to take out a reverse mortgage when the property is paid in full at a time when we no longer have an income. This is not the only way, we have just come to accept it as the only option, we must not ask the government to invoke change thorough policy, we must change our own policies, expectations and habits, it should have nothing to do with government policy.  
 

Do we bring back the layaway plan? The regular installment payment that culminates in the exciting moment of pick-up and actual ownership? We are so used to paying for things with institutionally owned money that we don’t question what we own, or do we even understand ownership? For me, as I age, I want to begin a divergence from what I will call “lendership” to “ownership”. I believe that is where we will find relief from the fear that stems from being reliant upon institutions for survival instead of on ourselves and our community-not our neighbourhood but our community. 
 

I believe we can temper our fears and reactions if we understand our rights, learn more, live within our means, borrow less, live slower and put more things on layaway instead of on our credit card.....oh, and listen to your shadow self, a lot can be learned when we are uncomfortable.  
 

Yours in truth always,  

Kathleen