Recession or Depression

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit. - Hellen Keller

"It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job," Harry Truman observed, "and it's a depression when you lose your own." As downturns in the economy disturb more and more households, we begin to question seriously the financial yardstick by which we have been measuring our personal net worth and therefore something happens.

As a lot of my friends know, the recession has personally affected me. It's hard to believe that there's anybody that it hasn't touched. at least indirectly. It is easy to surrender to an emotional depression when a financial one occurs. It's easy to be pessimistic about tomorrow when today seems so bleak.

But I trying my best to put thoughts of lack behind me. I have yet to discover the secrets of the stars, to sail to an uncharted land, to open up a new heaven where my spirits can soar. But first, I'll have to make changes. And lasting change does not happen overnight. Lasting change happens in infinitesimal increments: a day, an hour, a minute, a heartbeat, at a time. I'm taking a deep breath. I'm learning to become an optimist.

Optimism, like the happiness habit, can be learned. Today, I am expecting that something good will happen no matter what occurred yesterday. The past no longer holds me captive. It can only continue to hurt me if I hold on to it. I'm letting it go. A simply abundant world awaits.

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