Resilient.
That's what my 17 year old son called me the other day, and I told him I had to be that way with 10 children. Some of my kids are grown and gone, but I still have six at home, including three teens. Oy! I don't always pull off resilience, but I certainly try. I appreciated his kind words of affirmation.
I was thinking of that in the morning when I woke up to the news that one of our toilets was overflowing. "I. Am. Resilient."
What is resilience? One definition for this context is:
"the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties."
Can you bounce back or roll with the punch?
Can you adapt to changing circumstances and still thrive?
Can you solve problems with confidence?
Can you be tender, yet tough?
Can you withstand opposition with grace?
Can you stick with a necessary task when you find it's more complicated or "impossible" than you expected?
Can you cope with stress in healthy, positive ways?
Can you remain hopeful and overcome a sense of despair?
Can you learn from your hard experiences so you'll function better the next time you face something else?
Not there yet?
You can learn. You can practice. I assure you that life will grant you plenty of opportunities if you are alert enough to recognize them.
You can be proactive and educate yourself on brainstorming, problem solving, stress management, communication skills, practical life skills, assertiveness, and more.
I have a long way to go. I want to get better. That's one way that This Mom Grows Up.
Check out these very helpful and practical links:
- Strategies for Living with Resilience (Holley Gerth at Christianity Today)
- The Road to Resilience
- Resilience: Build Skills to Endure Hardship (Mayo Clinic)
- What is Resilience? at This Emotional Life.
- Forget Balance. Try Resilience.
- Surprises Are the New Normal; Resilience is the New Skill (Harvard Business Review): This may be a primarily business article, but I love these excerpts: "Complacency, arrogance, and greed crowd out resilience. Humility and a noble purpose fuel it. Those with an authentic desire to serve, not just narcissism about wanting to be at the top, are willing to settle for less as an investment in better things later... Resilience draws from strength of character, from a core set of values that motivate efforts to overcome the setback and resume walking the path to success. It involves self-control and willingness to acknowledge one’s own role in defeat. Resilience also thrives on a sense of community — the desire to pick oneself up because of an obligation to others and because of support from others who want the same thing. Resilience is manifested in actions — a new contribution, a small win, a goal that takes attention off of the past and creates excitement about the future."
About the photos:
The picture at the top of this post is of a 89 foot tall bald cypress tree called "Lady Liberty" which has been growing at Big Tree Park in Longwood, Florida for around 2,000 years. Impressed by the size and age? It's 3,500 year old companion tree, The Senator, pictured below in 2008, grew to a height of 160 feet tall before a hurricane in the 1920s reduced it to 126 feet. Sadly, arson destroyed the tree in 2012, and now only its charred shell remains. Still, that's quite some resilience to survive that long through storm and flood and all the other challenges it faced. Not only that, a few select artists were commissioned to salvage the wood and create a legacy. I've seen some of these masterpieces at art shows. Check out this FB page: A Matter of Woodwork. Beauty from the ashes!
This post is the 5th in my Big Words series. The others are:
So I thought this article was wonderful <3 seeing as I'm so... NOT resiliant, but really really NEED to be :( Great post, by God's grace :)
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