Let’s start with a feeling many of us already know. This week, AP reported that Americans’ opinion of the economy has fallen to its lowest level since 2014. Prices are still high, paychecks haven’t kept up, and the ongoing war with Iran has kept everyday costs on edge. If you’ve stood in the grocery aisle doing quick math, you’re in very large company.

That worry shows up in the housing market, too. The average 30-year mortgage rate has climbed back above 7% for the first time in about 20 months, according to PBS NewsHour. For a young family saving for a first home, a rate like that can turn a doable monthly payment into an out-of-reach one. It’s a quiet kind of heartbreak — the dream isn’t gone, it just moved a few steps further away.

There’s also news on the health care front that will touch many households. AP reports that as Medicaid work requirements approach next year, at least six states plan to be stricter than federal rules, asking people to document that they’re too sick to work. That’s a lot of paperwork for folks who are already dealing with illness, and it’s worth all of us watching closely to make sure people who qualify don’t slip through the cracks.

So what do we do with all of this? Well, we do what Americans have always done. We check in on the neighbor who’s had a hard year. We share the good grocery deal, the honest mechanic, the free community class. We ask our local leaders real questions and we vote. None of these headlines is a small thing, but none of us has to carry them alone.

Hard seasons pass, and the way we treat each other in them is what people remember. Let’s keep looking out for one another — that’s still the most reliable thing this country has going for it.