For my weekly writing spot on this site, see the One-Minute Mystic, with a new meditation posted every Monday. Also see The Village, the story of Misty Longings, England's most beautiful village, posted episode by episode earlier this year.       Matthew Horne is a busy actor these days; though maybe too busy. He recently collapsed on stage in London's West End, during a performance of "Entertaining Mr Sloane". Doctors said he was suffering from "severe stress". But what did the nation think on the phone-in which followed? It's not a good time for actors to get tired and emotional, because there's not much sympathy out there. "You think you're stressed? What about me?" This was the general tone. We had teachers phoning in, full of their exhausting routine; social workers in child protection, who felt a few days away from a lynching; doctors on the A and E shift, desperately prioritising need; and the foreman who ran the warehouse, and felt overwhelmed by his staff's problems. But they were only the advance party of stress, because for many listening, these folk were the lucky ones. "Stress?" they said. "Those people don't know the meaning of the word! Stress is having no job; and no prospect of one. Not knowing how you're going to pay your gas bill." Or again, stress is providing 24 hour care: "I'm looking after my father who has dementia, and my daughter who has cerebral palsy. That's stressful." Or finally, "I've just been diagnosed with cancer, and am having to face the fact that I won't see my children grow up." All in all, not a huge outpouring of concern for an over tired actor, who seems to have trouble saying "No" to job offers. Mention stress, and everyone's got an "I'm more stressed than thou" story. Stress is ubiquitous these days, but ill defined. I understand it as "an inadequacy of spirit exposed." If we are stressed, it's because we don't presently have the inner resources to cope with our circumstances. For some, this presents a healthy alchemy of challenge, transmuting into adventurous and joyful resilience. For others, it exposes a withered and damaged will, which becomes a depressed and furious hopelessness. And because the body is one, such long term perceptions of inadequacy can have physical repercussions. Cortisol, the "stress hormone", is over-released, suppressing the body's immune system and bringing common colds or worse. Human support is good, as are treats. "I felt so much better when a friend took me out for a meal yesterday," said one stressed soul. "Today, I feel I could conquer the world!" That's nice. But the pearl of great price here is the joyful resilience buried within every human soul, like treasure down a mine. Some have lost the map of its whereabouts; or had it taken from them. But this is the resilience which can walk through the fire wall of perceived inadequacy, and somehow come out the other side, more in love with life than ever. "Life breaks us all, but some are made strong in the broken places," as Hemingway said. All the world's a stage, and we all collapse now and then. But when the final curtain falls, let it be on our resilience and joy. More writings © Simon Parke