With the ice storms moving through the Southern and Eastern part of the United States this week, everything feels frozen. Lives are frozen in their tracks. Something uncontrollable has taken over, again.

I have been thinking about the term I heard on the news last night as it described the economic impact at such times, “frozen-omics” they called it. Many are hard hit by the loss of a week’s work. I’ve had to cancel a week’s worth myself and I know that is small compared to businesses with more traffic and overhead. But when I hear it said that people aren’t out at the malls shopping, with a lot of anxiety being felt around that, I feel a gut concern rising. It reminds me of the consumerism that is at the core of our economics and I feel sad and worried for us. Suddenly I see us as a mass of folks scrambling about to make a dollar and then spend the dollars. My dark imagination suddenly sees us collectively as earning, spending robot zombies, with a loss of deeper human values as fall out.

I would love to hear equal reports on the news about  what is being gained everywhere by people figuring out how to be with the situation. Families are suddenly home together. I sat close to my fire all week. What if we deeply, even sacredly,  listen to this call? Maybe like a sweet Mom, Nature wants us closer to her heart. Maybe she wants us to stop and listen to that beat. I have been very moved listening to her beat this week; it is certainly a different rhythm than our lives generally call for. Maybe She is gathering us up to feel her big love, and wants us to realize that she cares about our too-busy lives. And maybe she does not want us to worry about the frozen-omics.

There is a great love here I’m feeling. An economics of love. That is the real provider.