Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Creativity in Hard Times

While it is true that these are hard times for many people, it is also a good time for others. For example, there are many homes on the market cheap because they were foreclosed. If you have enough money to buy them and hold them a few years, you will make money. If you can afford to buy stocks at rock bottom prices, eventually, they will rise again.

There are manufacturing and other industries that will probably never return. However, that may leave an open for many smaller or more specialized businesses to spring up. For example, perhaps businesses that make some sort of unique pieces of furniture or clothing. Some creative people have made money selling handmade soaps and candles and other things. Recently when I needed some work done on my computer, I hired a geek (part of the name of his business) to come out and fix it. There are dog sitters and house cleaners. There are people who will cook for you in your own home or cook meals meals for people on special diets and deliver them to you frozen, and ready to heat and eat. There are people who offer private tutoring in Spanish. There are people who shop for deals at yard sales and garage sales and resell them. Of course, these are just a few things that come to mind. How many other possible ideas can you think of?

In good times, there is a pressure to produce certain kinds of popular things in response to the market. In hard times, people who are creative will sometimes come up with radically new approaches to things that catch people's fancy.

Creativity seems to blossom in times of adversity, just like seeds sprout when they are in the soil. The darkness and heaviness provide the climate for the seed to sprout and root.

As a tarot reader, I have been looking at all different kinds of venues to read in, and all kinds of ways to promote my readings. People may also choose to try alternative methods of healing both because of the promise that unusal approaches offer and because they are less expensive than conventional approaches to health care.

Hard times can be like the soil that gives a seed a place to grow. We have to be creative to flourish in hard times. Difficulty and adversity can be like the fertilizer that stimulate us. Creativity is our way of reaching toward the light.

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