A year for resilience

2017 was no picnic in Sisters.

We started the year half-frozen and buried under snowdrifts. Many local residents found winter intruding into their homes thanks to ice dams and leaks - and some of them struggled to get the damage repaired all the way into the following fall.

The Milli Fire - and a host of other blazes across the region - left us choking on smoke for weeks - and choked off the busy heart of the season for many local businesses. Cherished cultural events like the Sisters Folk Festival were called off.

2017 demanded considerable resilience from Sisters - from individuals and from the community at large.

It would be nice to think that 2018 would go easier on us, but we can't take that for granted. It's good to be prepared and to practice all of the actions and qualities that make for resilience. Individual preparedness is always beneficial (all that preparation for the Eclipse-olypse That Wasn't isn't wasted), but more important still are maintaining the ties that bind as a community. We're lucky to live in a community that's still small enough and cohesive enough that we know our neighbors and can look out for one another.

And it's those ties that ultimately make us resilient in the face of whatever Mother Nature or the mysteries of economics dish out.

Consider putting "build resilience" on the list of New Year's Resolutions. If history is any guide, we're going to need it.

Jim Cornelius, Editor