what now?

A dear friend wrote to me today to say her husband lost his job.  She is freaked out, and with cause.  We so often identify who we are by the material things we possess.  I admit, this is hard not to do.  Our society bases so much on this judgement.  But, loss of these things can be such a blessing.  Back in the old days, I had graduated from university and had a strong desire to go to graduate school.  I believed that with my speech impediment, the only way for me to be successful was to be educated to the degree that I would be better at my job then anybody else.  Though what follows is a series of long contorted stories, I'll try to keep it brief.  I decided I would go out on the preverbal limb and take all my money and use all the loans I could get to go to horse shoeing school.  I believed that if I had my own shoeing business, I could work my schedule around my classes in graduate school.  My luck has not often been what I would have considered to be "good", although now I see it far differently.  Anyway, I went to school, returned home and my so called definite clients failed to honor their guarantees of business.  Result: a failing business and more debt!  My friend in Michigan offered me a chance to go there and work with him shoeing standardbred race horses.  So, my loving wife and I packed up our dogs, our meager belongings, and our pony (that was a real sight!) in the back of our pick up truck and made the leap of faith to Michigan.  Could this be the origin of the "dog and pony show"?  Anyway, things started out really good, but then the record snows came.  Long story short, unlike any other year in memory, the racing stopped for the winter and I was again without income.  We returned home in apparent disgrace, lowering ourselves to taking up temporary residence with her parents (who, by the way, did not hold me in high regard!).  We both got jobs and moved into a tiny little house and worked our cute young asses off to get out of debt.  All was looking good until income tax time, when it became apparent that our good efforts to earn extra money by working all the overtime we could resulted in us owing the IRS about $600 in back taxes.  Now, $600 may not seem like much money, but to me it might as well have been six million!  I wanted to give up and move to Canada, but my loving wife once again came to the rescue and calmed me down; and borrowed $600 from her parents.  I was now thoroughly depressed.  I told my wife I needed a break, moved to Point Lookout State Park, lived in my tent in the camp ground, and secured a seasonal job with the Park Service.  Eventually I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to rent the Point Lookout Lighthouse to live in (very haunted, but that's another story).  All was starting to look up until the bottom fell out again.  We had our truck repossessed after putting all our money into making up back payments, so now we were broke and had no transportation.  I found an old bicycle at the dump and fixed it up to use to peddle up to the camp ground get water, because the water in the lighthouse  was not potable.  To my delight, the father of a friend had an old Plymouth Valiant with a smashed in front end that he got running and gave to us.  (This was one of many valuable lessons in friendship!)  Where is this going?  Well, we were at an all time low.  I really do not know anyone who was as bad off as we were.  Eventually, after my seasonal job came to an end, we moved to Salisbury, MD where my wife landed a part time job picking eggs in a huge hen-laying warehouse, so we had all the eggs we wanted for free.  We got a house rent free in exchange for her taking care of the owners horses.  In all of this, we came to see that we had more friends, real friends, then we would ever have realized without the hardships.  We eventually worked our way back.  I got a teaching assistantship in graduate school and we slowly pulled ourselves up from the depression that had been surrounding us.  This might seem like I have exaggerated, but in actuality I left out many of the downturns and problems in my attempt for brevity.  Like I recently stated, if I ever wrote my story, it would have to be published as fiction!  My point here is that I learned three very valuable lessons from these experiences.  First, I learned that if we, my wife and I,  stuck together and worked as a team, we could get through anything.  It strengthened our relationship because we had to depend on each other.  I will never again feel trepidation at the potential loss of my material possessions.  Second, I learned that I am so much more then my material possessions.  I learned that as long as I had my dream, I would eventually accomplish my goal.  It might take a while, but I would get there.  And lastly, I learned the value of true friendship.  The things people did to help us, without being asked and asking nothing in return, will always be with me.  I will always be so thankful for the love and compassion of my fellow man, and I will try to emulate this in all my interactions with others I encounter on my path.  I know I have said this before, but I feel so blessed to be me, and to have the path my Creator has laid out before me.  I am truly in a continued bliss of gratitude.