Luckiness In The Crunch Time
These days, I try to think of good blog topics while I make my boring lists and run my necessary, but unexciting, errands to make sure that all is remembered before I take off in the early days of next year…just three weeks from today. I seem to be on schedule and, so far, is so good; but what great philosophy do I have worthy of blogging about and sending out on the airwaves these days?
Well, there is one line of thought, deep in development, but it’s not ready to run up the flagpole yet. Trouble is, I haven’t had many of my long beach walks where I do my best thinking, since the weather has turned chilly. That inspiration concerns mystical properties of the Spinal Analogy of South America. I’m gathering my maps and various related material to study up on, and you will surely hear plenty about this idea, the farther south I go. But, it’s premature at the moment.
However, there is one emotion (Gratitude) that I should sit down and pay homage to…as well as to remember to have within my own breast as I go charging along making my current dreams come true. Perhaps you have noticed that the three unrealized dreams of last summer have now all become realities: my book is published; my blog exists; and my next world trip is going to happen. I am so in the mode for it that anything that might come along to derail these plans would be hard to adjust to at this late stage. So, the inner determination which I feel right now makes me even more sensitive to the plight of so many others who are watching their own dreams become shipwrecked.
I’m very, very grateful that the World Crunch, which seems to be creeping over life in so many dimensions here in America, has not touched me or my family members. The huge, messy, housing bubble that has just blown up in this country has not personally impacted me. Yet, in my neighborhood, city, state, and country, For Sale or For Rent signs are sprouting on so many houses as mortgages become unbearable and bank foreclosures multiply. Behind the scenes, people are scrambling to pack up and move out of beloved homes; children must leave their schools and friends behind as new family shelter is sought and everyone’s life becomes a big unknown; lived in the temporary lane.
The fallout has scrambled Wall Street. Corporate giants are falling. Stocks have dried up. Money is suddenly safer under the mattress, if it still exists. Jobs are cut by the thousands, so it’s not only one’s home that disappears, it’s the workplace, and the schedule, and the security, and the retirement plans, and the college savings. In general, everybody’s hopes and dreams have been thrown into the blender.
Suddenly, for so many people, it’s hard to see ahead and to estimate what the new year will be like for them. That makes it very difficult to conceive of a bold, new idea and then to take the logical steps necessary to convert a wispy figment of hope into a crystalized future. It’s the difference between planning to cross over a raging river and having before you either a strong bridge…a sturdy log…a few slippery stones…or, nothing at all, except your own dog paddle.
Dreams don’t crop up as often under the latter circumstances. BUT, on the other hand, sometimes when all ties are loosened up, dreams become absolutely possible for the very first time. Maybe when house and job and savings and future plans are all washed away, that’s when someone finally gets the courage to venture forth into the unthinkable; like immigrants forced to strike out into the Wild West during the early days of this country. Risky, hectic, desperate. ..but, sometimes you can strike gold.
I’m grateful for being able to, slowly and deliberately, plan my next escape and to tick off those boring lists without any outside pressure. How did I escape the hurricane so far? Well, I have nothing to be swept away. I’ve sometimes called myself a little waterbug, skimming along on the surface of this material world’s pond, and I’ve always seen that as a great advantage. My few possessions could be replaced. I’m a “cheap date” for my darling buddy, Life, having no health concerns and no expensive appetites. I could just as happily live one place as another. So, the stuff that takes a lifetime to acquire has not accumulated around my head and heart.
The reality of today’s economy is that a whole lot more people are going to be shoved, unwillingly, into the unencumbered life that I have completely enjoyed all along. My advice to them is to “Come on in, the water’s fine! It’s just a little cold, right there at first!”
Tags: 1, Counting my blessings, Dreams come harder in hard times, Economic crunch time, Tag Index
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