Depressing Times Like These.....

In the last few weeks i came to the self-realization that i constantly take the life I enjoy for granted. The reason for this sudden realization came in the form of shock. About a month and a half ago, after I had gotten home from school, my dad pulled my family together in a meeting. I knew something was wrong because tis rarely ever happens. He was hesitant in the explanation of the trouble, but managed to finally explain the situation. As most people who are afraid of explaining a troubling situation, he explained that we were going to move to Colorado. At first, Ithought he was joking, and then as reality settled into my heart, I started to believe him and suddenly felt the seriousness of the situation. He explained that the company he works for had called them into a meeting that day and made the announcement that they were closing down the office here in Southern California. They said that their managers would call them in individually in order to discuss their futures with the company. My dad said that he was one of the few people that was offered a position in the company's Denver office. That hit the family particularly hard. we came to the sudden realization that we were some of the luck few not hit as hard by this struggling economy. I thought to myself that our family could have been one of the many that was left without a permanent source of income. without this income, our family would not be able to make it in the world.

My whole world was about to change in a period of weeks, but I was soon to find out, these weeks would fly by and my world would be upside down. A few weeks ago, we started the process of getting our little house up for sale. That is when the depression started. It was coming true. Up to then i had been hoping there would be something that would happen to keep this whole thing from happening. When my parents signed the papers, I knew that this was really going to happen. There is now no turning back. These past few weekends have been spent painting the house an rearranging furniture.

I spend the nights that I cannot sleep pondering on the life i have lived and realize that everything I have come to love, I am going to have to leave behind. all the people I have gotten to know throughout the years are soon to no longer be apart of my life. I have lived in Southern California all my life and I know the world around me like the back of my hand. Over the years I have been what seems like one of the few people to stay in my ever changing neighborhood. I have seen good friends pass away, friends to move out and strangers to move into the vacant houses. The results of the "change" that Obama has promise are most evident in the abandoned houses on my street. They are the result of the economy trying to stimulate growth that was supposed to help raise the economy out of recession. As a result of many people buying their houses at zero money down, as their rates go up, they are no longer able to pay their loans. I order to get out of this financial predicament, these people abandon the homes in order to escape the responsibility of paying off their loans. These kinds of people are a prime example of the way society operates: "If I don't like it, i don't want to deal with it". This kind of thinking is slowly bringing an end to a seemingly stable society.

In these times people look to things to comfort them and to help get them out of their situations, but one of the things that is mostly ignored is God. Some people just don't want to face the fact that there is truly a divine being that decides the fate of the world, and even their individual lives, while others know this, but still refuse to devote themselves. In admittance, i have to say that through these times, my faith has been challenged greatly. I ask myself why God would do this to me and focus not on the fact that I am one of the lucky people that has been given a way out of this situation, but on the fact that my personal world is falling to pieces.

Through the spiritual guidance that my Mother provides for me, I have come to realize that I am blessed to have been given a chance to live a good life. Our family has been in the caring arms of our creator and we have been blessed to the fullest. All I have to say is that under all my sadness I am truly thankful for the fact that God's love is pouring out onto my family.