In this day and age in America where costs for everything
essential it seems are consistently ($3.99 for a pomegranate,
anyone?) climbing while unemployment rates are rapidly rising
(Yahoo and Amazon has just announced staff reduction, i.e. job
cuts, GM is merging.) one is fortunate just to be able to claim a
warm, safe place to call home.
Never
before has there been a time to be more grateful for the fact that
you and your loved ones still have a home, for some have not been
so fortunate.
In a time when the
economy is hanging by a thread with daily forecasts of more
financial earthquakes to follow, there is little room to take even
the smallest things for granted, such as a hot meal on the table or
a fire in the furnace.
The entire
financial crisis that has sent this country into a modern day tail
spin has many Americans and rightfully so, frightened for their
tomorrows as their major stock portfolios, balances of their
retirement accounts and other major investments continue to whittle
away with the highly erratic ups and downs of the rollercoaster the
stock market has become.
Facing
foreclosure and bankruptcy are without question two of the most
frightening things that can happen to a family, and close cousins
to catastrophic illness and loss of income.
However, one tries to look at this bleakly hued
picture, it is without question, a little more than difficult to
find an angle that does not appear completely
grotesque.
It is like the nightmare
from, which so many American families are praying to
awaken.
Still, when you can consider
the fact that you are still alive and in good health and are
fortunate enough to have friends and family who love you
unconditionally, you can find the fragment of hope, for, which we
should all be most grateful.
Hope that
tomorrow things will improve.
Hope that
the election of the next president of the United States will bring
the promise of a brighter future for all Americans, the
impoverished, the working poor, the middle class and yes even the
independently wealthy, for money is indeed, not everything in the
end.
When there is no hope, how can
there be any happiness or reason to believe in anything getting
better?
When one has hope that things
will improve, he or she has the ability to work arduously to make
the impossible seem somehow possible even in light of
life’s tribulations.
Financial doom is not something to be taken lightly and losing
one’s possessions is a horrific reality for
some, but if one has hope, then he or she has the one necessary
ingredient to inspire the strength that will be integral to turning
things around.
In the face of certain
doom, we must reach deep, deep within our souls to find the faith
that keeps us motivated to keep living and hoping as we march
towards the promise of a tomorrow when the terrible possibilities
will all be little more than the bad dream we will try to
forget.
In the midst of this turmoil
that is confronting so many hardworking Americans and individuals
around the globe, we must remain determined to achieve those goals
we set for ourselves and hold fast to the principles that make us
who we are as a people, as a nation.
Are times tough, you bet!
Will they get
tougher?
According to economists and
other financial analysts, the signs support the possibility that
they will but do they have to steal everything good that we can
still call our own?
The answer is no
and we cannot afford to allow that to ever happen for when we
concede the fight against the foe of economic disparity, we lose
every possible chance to see the dawn of recovery.
We must now more than ever focus on those things
in our life that give us hope, those rare and precious people for
who we will always be grateful, the ones who make us
whole.
Now more than ever, those facing
the worse case scenarios must remain firm in the belief that things
can improve.
Somewhere within that love
we must seek the self determination that makes every single one of
us strong even when faced with the worse situations we will ever
know.
In focusing on those things and
the people for whom we are most grateful, we can find the reasons
to keep positive and that internal strength that every human being
on this earth, needs to plod on when the terrain becomes a thousand
times tougher than we have ever known.
