Is Our Country Becoming (Dare I Say it) a Happier Place?

We all know that more than one in every ten people in our country is currently unemployed. But it seems to me with the economy in the tank and hundreds of thousands without jobs, there are more happy and content people around us. Maybe I’m speculating, but just this morning someone posted a blog thanking her cut in hours (and pay) for being able to spend a leisurely morning in bed. I wonder how many times she dreamed of doing just that while she was on her way to work every morning.
 

One of my very good friends lost her job three months ago and now I see her out walking her dog with the older women in our neighborhood and she says she loves it. She’s getting to think about herself now and getting to know other people for a change. This is the girl who was always frantically running in late to our monthly bunco gatherings and even then, checking the blackberry every so often. She told me how liberating it was when she handed over the phone and the job that weighed her down.
 

After looking for employment for over a year, another friend of mine says she realized during that time that her job was not her life and did not define who she was. That’s clarity if you ask me. For years our careers defined who we wanted to become. There was a natural path to our lives and our jobs predicted that path.
 

Over the past year, my husband has gone through numerous pay cuts, seen bonuses dwindle to nothing and agonized over laying off more and more of his employees. But now that he’s not as busy, he has more time to devote to working out and playing the sports he loves and is home to eat dinner with our family. The stress factor has been lowered and he too is realizing that the job that he’s devoted the last ten years of his life to, is not what makes him the man he is.
 

I see and read about examples like this everywhere these days. It seems people are finally focusing on who they are and what they have instead of who they want to be and what they want to obtain. Everyone says it takes hitting rock bottom for people to appreciate what they have. Is that what’s happening in our country as a whole? Have we hit rock bottom and face planted in our own economical dirt? 
 

These are incredibly tough times for our country and for the precious people that make it what it is. But if going through this means we become a happier country, and a more happier people, will it all be worth it in the end? Maybe we haven’t reached rock bottom yet, and things will get worse before they get better. If so, I hope we still all look up and see the sun shining and the people that we love surrounding us and realize the things and people in life that are truly important.