Dying dreams and how to resurrect them

I've heard it said that the loss of a job is similar to a death of a loved one, and I believe it. Granted, death is usually associated with much more anguish and pain than losing a job, but I think there is another difference. Death is permanent whereas a job loss is temporary.

Nevertheless, I found myself going through those seven stages of grief when hubby lost his job. I've been in the acceptance stage for quite some time, but once in awhile, one of the other stages will creep up on me again. For example, I'll get angry or scared or even be in denial about the uncertainty of our situation. But what's giving me hope is that I know our situation is temporary. It will not last forever. The uncertainty of specifically how it will end troubles me, I say my prayers, give my hubby a hug and then dig into the details of our daily lives. And I allow God to comfort me through various ways that bring me peace and allow me to continue living my life.

The other day as we were talking about future dreams, I asked hubby why we should even be talking about these dreams until he gets a job. No sooner did the words come out of my mouth that I realized how powerful that statement was, and it made me suddenly realize where my current state of "unloveli-ness" was coming from. I feel like we're putting our life on hold until he gets a job, and no job has been found yet...after three months.

Our dreams aren't elaborate by any means, but they're things that we'd like to do in the future that require suitable financing. Without that next job, we really cannot live out what we most would like to do. That's a really frustrating feeling! So I wanted to do something that would lighten our moods and allow us to dream again.

That night, he & I planned to spend some time alone w/the girls spent time with their grandparents. Before dinner was served, I told him that the theme of the night was "The Game of 3". For example, name three things you would like to purchase in the next year...just for yourself. Or name three places you'd like to visit w/the girls. Or name three cars you'd like to own. Or, if you had magical powers, name three ways you'd change our country. Stuff like that. I even challenged him to come up with some of his own questions.

It got off to a slow start, but after awhile, we started having a lot of fun with it. Some of the "3s" were serious, but most were light-hearted and generated a lot of laughter. After dinner we moved to a coffeehouse and played "The Game of 3" for another hour and a half.

As the evening wore on, I noticed that the game was having the affect that I hoped it would. Not only did we share laughter (badly needed right now) and dreams (some realistic and some wild), but it also resulted in terrific conversation that didn't revolve around just the kids. I have to admit that often times my dreams take center stage...I'm the one thinking about them, discussing them, planning them, etc. He's a pretty easy going guy and agrees with most of what I come up with. But that night also allowed me to watch him dream some of his own dreams, which he really needed to do. He needed to get that dream cycle going again, so that he could see his way out of our current crisis.

Needless to say, we were able to resurrect our dreams and our attitude. If only for that night, we were able to take our life "off hold" and think about the future.

Question: When a major crisis hits your home, do you feel as though your life gets put on hold until the crisis passes?