Silver Lining???

My Mom and I were talking this week about the current state of the economy. Fortunately for us Brian and I have not yet been hit as hard as so many people we know. Brian's job is going VERY well thank God. My job is okay. My classes got slashed (downsized my number of classes by 2/3) but I still have a job. For that we feel infinitely blessed and we know how lucky we are.

I feel like I have to preface this post by saying that we know we're lucky because otherwise I might come off as sounding like a jerk. I know times are hard and I know that for most people silver lining is the last thing on there mind. So now that I have prefaced appropriately, off I go.

I am a silver lining type. I keep my sanity in knowing that there is always a bigger picture and a greater plan. I know every setback is part of the path I am supposed to walk. Even in my darkest days I knew that there was a reason I was there. I didn't really care then but I still knew. So I was pondering why economic times like these have to happen and what (if any) benefit there is. What I concluded is that there is without a doubt in my mind some small benefit for many of us. For those who are without work and simply cannot make ends meet, this is obviously not the case. But for those of us who are getting by maybe we should take a lesson from this.

And here is that lining: if we have less money we have to cut certain things. I know for a family like mine the first things to go are things like entertainment $$ and going out to eat. And what happens in those cases? We spend more time together and more time eating at home as a family. Maybe instead of turning on the TV you save a few cents in electricity by playing a board game or playing Barbie's with your kids. Maybe in a society that has become so focused on the almighty dollar we are being hit with this crisis so we don't completely lose sight of what is important. Brian and I are by no means rich (unless you mean in love and spirit :D). We live close to paycheck to paycheck. Our savings went into having our daughters. So we have lived through tough times. Through those times we always kept in mind that money was money. We could always make more money. Money is not what is most important.

So I guess what I'm saying is that if you believe in a bigger picture or a plan. Be it God or Karma or whatever I think this is all part of the plan. I just hope that a large group of us can walk away learning something from this.

**Hopefully this post is somewhat cohesive. I wanted to get it out while it was still in my head but I am pretty exhausted. :D **