Sun rising....that reminds me of my jobless time. I was 9 months out of college, and my company closed my plant 2 weeks before 9/11/01, which, if you recall, was also not too far removed from the dot-com bubble burst. Not the best time to be looking for a professional job with not much experience. There were a lot of jobs cancelled after 9/11, and what was left I was fighting for with people with many years of experience.
I ended up moving back home with my parents and I'd go to a friend's house to job hunt online during the day. Another friend would stop in and say hi when he was in the area, and one day he asked me what I did all day. I explained my daily routine, and he re-iterated, "No, but what do you DO all day". I said that I just told him what I did. He finally clarified and asked how I got thru the day without anything to get up for (external motivation of a job to go to). I clarified (as others have said) that getting a job was now my motivator, and that surviving the day was a lot easier than one might think. All it really took was to get up, and keep breathing until you went to bed, and you made it. Beyond that, it might not be a 'good day' or a fun day, but you made it, and that was good enough, some days.
I didn't know it at the time, but it'd come back around...a year or so later, I had found a job, but was working a 2 year degree job and paying student loans on a 4 year degree (but not complaining, just highlighting that you don't always find the perfect solution, sometimes you have to do what you gotta do), and that friend that had asked me about getting thru the day...he and his wife lost a newborn child from a genetic condition.
I took some time one day and baked them a couple loaves of homemade bread (a hobby I picked up to 'make it thru the day' after scouring the job postings) and wrote them a note about what we had talked about, and reminded him that when the situation hit him like a ton of bricks, if he just kept breathing until he went to bed, he would make it thru that day, and that might be good enough for that day.
A couple years later, I had moved away for a job in my major, but I ran into him at another friend's wedding. Both he and his wife independently pulled me aside and said how much that gesture and letter helped them and meant to them.
Sometimes, the "worst" times can be when you cling close to those who care about you (and that doesn't have to be a spouse, or parents, or family...sometimes it's just friends) and you can really see what is important despite the day-to-day grind of job/bills, etc. That's not to say that jobs and bills aren't important...they say that money isn't important to those who have it...but when you lose one, you can cling closer to the things and relationships you do have.
