The Opportunity within the Economic Crisis - by Lynne Twist

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We're living in a time of economic crisis. We're living in a time when the economic system, the money system itself, the markets are unraveling.

And this is a very frightening time for people.

At the same time, if we can recognize that what is unraveling is that which has no viability. What is unraveling is that which is not sustainable. Practices, ways of being with money, markets that are not based in true value any longer are starting to fall apart.

If we can see that what's happening is a truing, is a recalibration, it helps us see how to deal with it on a personal basis.

It doesn't mean it's not going to be painful; it doesn't mean that there's not suffering; it doesn't mean that we shouldn't be paying close attention to how we use money.

But if we look on a larger scale, if we step back from the personal trauma, the fear, that we're all caught in and that the media's caught in, and see that we're living at a time of enormous excess that has created financial structures and systems that are inappropriate and completely unsustainable. And now they're falling apart. We’ll know that, at the end of this, we're all going to be better for it, because we're going to be in a truthful, more accurate, more integrous (appropriate) relationship with our self, with money and with the resources on this planet.

We can get through this.

It's a difficult time. I don't deny that.

But it can also be a beautiful time. Because we can move towards thrift rather than accumulation; we can move toward appreciating what we love rather than being afraid of what we've lost. We can focus our attention and intention not on what we're losing, but on what we already have that's so valuable and nourishing to us. And we can stop clamoring for more of what we don't really need and take care of what we have.

This is a time that I think history will look back on and say,

“These are the people, this is the generation of humankind, that made the changes that went through a transformation that made the future of life possible. These are the people who had the courage to make profound changes in the way they were thinking--as well as in the way that they were behaving--that gave the future to life itself."

So, I'm privileged to be living at this time.

I'm excited about being the generation that goes through this courageous period.

It's a gift, it's a blessing; a tough one, but something that will create the profound transformational change that's absolutely necessary and required for us to have a future on this planet.