Resilience

The key to life is resilience.  We will always be knocked down.  It’s the getting up that counts.  Dominique Browning.

When I walked out of the Covid world and entered a new one where masks were not required and I could go freely about my business, I was met with a profoundly vocal:  now what?  Up until this point I was constantly pivoting, adjusting, and managing a road filled with uncertainty, some of which I did well and some of which I didn’t.  I sometimes possessed the role of holding the space for others too– the staff who worked with me, the individuals who looked up to me, my family and friends.   I can only imagine that they too also struggled and pivoted like I did.

Thank God, we are coming out of it.   Yet we also face a world chaotic and troublesome and the paths are not clear in the least.  Masks still exist.  Uncertainty too.  It appears we are doing the best we can.

But, is that enough?

If we are looking for some sign or message that would clearly mark the next turn in our path it is not readily apparent.  The roads we once assumed would be there always are now closed, and the detour sign hints at a completely different path as uncertain as the last.

Resilience is the only tool that keeps me going. Fall down.  Get up.  Fall down.  Get up.

What about you?

It’s hard to keep a sense of hope and possibility alive when the road continues in one long asphalt ribbon with seemingly no end, because now all we have is to trust a process that is still not giving any clue to the other side of our journey.  Sometimes peace arises in the journey and you just know you’ll find your way.  Sometimes, well, it just sucks.

The thing is you/we can’t give up.  To do so, sends a message to others – our children, our loved ones, those who cross our path — that belief in possibility is just a fantasy.  Or, that faith in the unknown is a foolish notion.

Wherever you are in the journey, it still gets down to this:   Fall down.  Get up.  Fall down.  Get up.   Our new landscape is still being defined.  We do have a say.  Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.