"HARD TIMES" HAPPEN FOR A REASON

     MANY  PEOPLE  DO  NOT  UNDERSTAND.....why this current economical downturn has happened.  But this is nothing new.  Since our nation's beginning, there have been several such downturns--some worse than others.  After all, whatever goes up, must come down--and that includes the economy.
     FOLKS  IN  THE  "ROARING  TWENTIES".....found this out big time. The 1920s had been a time when  the stock market was  flying high, and so many people were investing--even on credit.  They apparently thought their "good times" would never end, for they had gotten used to the illegal  booze flowing and the money coming in from their stocks.  But then the stock market crashed on that infamous October day in 1929,  ending the hopes & dreams of millions.  Thus the "Great Depression of the 1930s" became a reality, not just for those who had invested, but for the entire nation.
     ON  A  LESSER  SCALE....a similar thing happened in the 1990s and into the 2000s, when the economy was good, with jobs & opportunities  prevalent . In fact  it proved too good, because many people bought homes they could not afford, often times because risky bank loans made this possible for them. Thus there were too many suspect loans being approved with little to no collateral and/or no down payment.  So, we might surmise that contributors(in part) to "hard times" often appear to be  loosely regulated stock markets & unwise banking practices--to name two.
      BUT  THESE  ECONOMIC  SET  BACKS.....are visited (from time to time) upon certain generations to teach human kind lessons that need to be learned.  In the case of the 1930s Depression era,  true, extreme hard times became a way of life for the multitudes.  But it prepared folks back then for what was to come their way.  They learned during the 1930s how to become stronger.  And this prepared them for those infamous 1940s war years of deprivation. 
     IT COULD  BE  THE  SAME ... for those of us, enduring hard times in this current recession.  For Americans had become known as the "fast food" generation--usually getting everything they wanted whenever they wanted it.  But now, hopefully, they are learning  how to do without & to conserve.   All of this is character building, for until one knows how to weather hard times, one's character has not been tested.  Besides, could this be lessons we need to learn, to better prepare us for (perhaps)  what is in store for us in the future?
     THIS  LADY  USED  TO  PUT  MUCH  CREDENCE.....on the here and now in my life.  But having endured so many ups & downs in my 77 years, I now know that this role I am playing here on planet Earth, this time around,  represents just a tiny speck of time in the history of my soul.   Thus I have come to view it all as an infinitely small span of life that I must get through, in order to get to my true home on the "other side". 
     SO,  WE  SHOULD  ALL  VIEW  OUR  LIVES  AS  SUCH..... and do the best we can with what we've been given,  and not cry & complain--"WHY  ME?"-- whenever things do not go our way.
      KNOW  THAT  OUR  SOUL'S  ESCALATION......is predicated on how well &  courageously  we each pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off & get on with the next chapter of our lives.

                 A M E N   TO  THAT   !! 
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