These are difficult times.

We hear this message quite a bit these days. Some variation seems to begin every article in the Business section of the paper, while the Classifieds dwindle. It appears to be the clarion call of a new president, and this was the hope and change guy! And if nothing else, we see the empty store-fronts, the For Sale signs resting comfortably for months on end in front yards everywhere.

And who among us doesn’t have a friend, or two, or five, who has been down-sized, out-sourced, or terminated? I see lots of restless, anxious parents these days, fretting, out of habit, over message-free Blackberrys.

These are difficult times. We hear it. We believe it. We fear it to our very core.

And so we recede. We stock up, hunker down, prepare for the worst. Natural, right?

We shrink back, away from ourselves and everyone else. We become, yes, ever-more unavailable. Our day-to-day decisions are increasingly driven by fear. Our basic set of assumptions has shifted. Maybe all the self-help blather is just that, false hope that the universe is abundant, that we will be provided with everything that we need. Think positive thoughts and we’ll attract positive stuff to us.

Well, I’m thinking positively here. Where the hell’s my stuff?

And believe me, I am not immune to this fear. All is takes is a slightly diminished client load, or an appointment cancellation, and the bile of fear begins to rise in my chest: This is it. All positive cash flow will soon be neutralized. The party’s over.

Catastrophe.

And I honestly don’t think I have the skill required to operate a Wendy’s drive-thru. I’m screwed.

Obviously, all this positive self-talk has gotten none of us anywhere, right? The reality is the reality. It sucks, and it’s right there in our faces.

But what if this, our horrendous Economic Downturn, is right where we’re supposed to be right now? Is it possible that all of our positive thinking, the power of attraction and all that, has actually led us directly to this very set of circumstances?

There is this undeniable trend in my neighborhood, and your’s too, I’ll bet, toward downsizing. The family in the ginormous Victorian showplace of a home with rooms that can go unvisited for weeks? They’re now checking out a moderate bungalow. Plenty big, mind you, but a lot smaller nonetheless. The Prius, Corrola and Mini Cooper now rule the road. Meanwhile, the Hummer is a laughable fossil of an era just-passed and, in all likelihood, we are better for it’s passing.

Bigger, fatter, more stuff? No longer better. Frowned upon, in fact. In what seems to be an instant, we are eco-friendly, brown baggers, living more simple lives.

Is this a bad thing? Or is this a correction in the truest sense of the term? I think maybe we’ve gotten it a bit wrong to date, and the Economy has come to rescue us from our own gluttony. People are really taking stock now, considering what is truly important to them. These Tough Times might be just the slap in the face we collectively needed in order to stop.

Stop running, racing, striving.

And recognize that, for the most part and the vast majority of us, we have all that we need, right here, right now. Even with shrinking IRA’s. It’s beyond okay to slow down, laugh with your kids, read a book, engage in a heart-to-heart, take a long walk. It is, in fact, urgent that we do so. This is our chance to recoup our lives from the dragon of want. There is abundant opportunity here, if we just raise our heads, open our eyes, and take a peek at the wreckage.

It’s really not so bad.

And so today, as my 12:30 cancels, the bile begins to rise. I draw in a breath, assess the damage, and turn on the computer. I have time to write, to create. As I sit here, I realize how important, how vital it is for me to do so. For me, there is magic and opportunity in filling in the blank page, something far more valuable to me than money.

Now, we have to do what we have to do. There are certain realities, and we need to make sure that our families are taken care of, no doubt. But we do have power over the way we choose to view these realities. We can choose to be afraid, to shrivel up and hide in the bushes until the next Bull Market rides in to our rescue.

Or we can choose to heed the message, make the changes. The opportunity here is vast.

No matter what, you can’t buy joy.

Gotta go.

My 1:30 is here.