RESILIENCE

Living well requires the capacity to adapt. Being reslient is the capacity to rebound. When one has had a significant setback (which we all experience at certain times in our lives) one's capacity to learn to live again beyond the crisis determines how happy they will be. When the past pain holds on so tight that we can't breathe the fresh air of tomorrow we miss much of what life has to offer.

Michael Sperber, MD suggests that one's capacity for resliience is related to one's capacity to "being-in-the-world." (Psychiatric  Times, July 2, 2012). He believes that the capacity adapt is related to the person engaging in three different conversations. One is being dialogue with nature. That is, the ability to ground yourself in the present is related to your being embrace by that of which we are a part and which sustains us. 

Anne Frank put it this way. "The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles." (Diary of a Young Girl, 1986).

As spring invades the heart land, I am discovering again the healing quality of being in nature. Dialogue with the expanse of sky and the solid footing of ground helps heal my pain and nurtures my soul. Maybe it can become a solace for you as well.

THANKS DADDY

Hiking today in the warming weather, sun shining, heart lighter. The dark clouds of frigid cold have taken a break and allowed the warming sun to melt the shoulder-hunched heart.

And I am thinking about my Daddy.  I am wondering how he would have handled my frustration during these past couple of days. My computer would not work and I was grouchy.  I couldn’t get my calendars to sync. I couldn’t write my blog. I had to type email replies on those little keys on my phone. (Not exactly life threatening frustrations.)

The reason I was thinking about my Daddy is that he would have known what to do. You see, he was creative and resilient. He could take any tool and make it do what he wanted. It is said that the key to getting things done is having the right tool. Well, my Daddy believed that the key to getting things done is making the tools you have do what you want them to do.

So, if he didn’t have a wrench, he would take the pliers he had and use them.  If they were not working, he would add a piece of scrap pipe to the end of the handles to get a tighter grip. If the job needed a chisel and he only had a screw driver, he made it into a chisel. 

This is the unwanted gift my Daddy received by being a child of the depression. It was a gift he probably would have preferred doing without, but one that made it possible for him to survive and provide a living for his wife and five children. 

Now, I admit that I didn’t inherit my Daddy’s tool skills. But, I am grateful for the gift he gave me of believing that I could make it with the gifts I had been given.  It doesn’t keep me from getting grouchy when I have to adapt, but it does enable me to stay with the tools I do have available for my work and get the job done.

On this warming day in a painfully cold winter, I am grateful for my Daddy.