I don’t know much about ebola.

It’s not something that touches my life at this point.

I could say, “I don’t have a dime in it” and just move on….ignore it and remain oblivious….if I wasn’t watching the news and didn’t take the threat seriously.

But….from what I understand, it’s moving….slowly and surely…moving, moving, moving….coming across the oceans…coming for me.

This morning we’re watching RescueBots.

So far, they haven’t mentioned the danger of contracting ebola.

I’m not one to bury my head in the sand.

I used to wake up in the morning, turn on the computer, and start my day reading something called “Survivalblog”.

I was up on everything that was coming to hurt me.

I was up on all the products that I could buy to protect myself and my family.

I was down with disaster.

I don’t do that anymore.

Now I get my bad information when we occasionally watch the news.

So, ebola is another thing in the long line of things that should terrify me.

Ebola…and terrorism.

Terrorism makes me afraid of a lot of things.

I’m thinking, “Job well done, dudes….I’m afraid now.”

Heightened alert….it must be effective terrorism.

I don’t know, though….all this fear does get old.

It’s mostly fear of things that I can’t see, too.

I can’t see a germ.

I can’t see these terrorist’s bad intentions when they smile at me and then stab me in the back.

I can’t see an economy.

It’s a cloud that’s clear….casting a shadow when it blocks the light for a moment.

I can’t see these things that I’m told to be afraid of.

The good things in my life are just as elusive.

I can’t see any thread that holds my family together.

I can’t bundle up hope and carry it around in a bindle….an optimistic hobo, off on another positive adventure.

I can’t see a lot of things.

I guess that the things that I can’t see are the things that define my life as much as what I can touch.

What I expect to be true….what I accept as truth….is what makes my life what it is….good or bad.

The things that I can’t see….but that I don’t stop looking for…are what saves or destroys me.

That must be what people call “faith”.

Maybe I can bundle up hope in a bindle….adding to the package, little by little, as I try to make my way through life?

Terrorism is real.

A bad economy is real, sometimes.

Ebola is something to take seriously….and very real.

But so are the good things.

The good things are just as real….and more worthy of my thoughts than all the bad that “might happen”.

That’s the only power I have…and I don’t know how to control it, really….yet.

The only power I have is what I choose to focus on.

“may you never” John Martyn