Reflections on Resilience

As a young student, I quite enjoyed going to school. Despite my social awkwardness (and maybe because of it), I was able to achieve relative academic success especially in tasks that allowed me to work alone. I had never considered myself slow to process information but I do recall that the subject where my comprehension was the lowest and slowest was the one that coincidentally caused the most personal panic. Math! Ugh!   Math seemed much more like a foreign language to me than French ever did and, for some reason, Math had the added element of time pressure.   ...

  We each contain within us a multitude of patterns and unconscious reactions. They’re often thinly disguised in thoughts and phrases such as “I can’t help it, this is who I am”.  Or perhaps they come to light in a moment of “Why do I always do that?” or when we catch ourselves consistently and insistently complaining about a particularly annoying person or event.   But what if a pattern is no longer beneficial and even becomes a hindrance to our growth and prevents us living freely, then what?  What if a pattern is trapping us in our own Groundhog ...

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, I was sitting on a bench in a playground watching my two preschool-aged children.  They navigated the jungle gym with a raw, adventurous curiosity as only children not yet been formally educated seem to do.   By that point in my life, most of my curious wonderings were tucked firmly away in deep, dusty pockets of parental responsibility, exhaustion and occasional bouts of generalized cynicism.   I was feeling protective of my precious pseudo-solitude on the bench that day.  No one needed me to wipe something, tie something or solve ...

  “Danette cries easily even when making minor errors like reversing her ‘b’s and ‘p’s while printing.”   In my defense, I was only 5 years old when this was written. And kindergarten was hard!   My magically-kind teacher was as close to being Glinda the Good Witch as any human being could get.  But she wasn't magical enough to prevent the overwhelm.  To keep the too-muchness of my new learning and social schedule at bay.   Glinda was spot on. Danette was definitely overwhelmed.   Somehow, I managed to conquer the internal chaos long enough to successfully learn.  I ...

"Forging" is a word that has some serious heft to it.   I think of firm-bodied men and women who come from hearty peasant stock.  They clear the land of dense forest to set up shop in their newly tamed patch of land.  And they bear litters of stocky children to help them claim and clear more land.  It speaks of fierce determination and a mighty horse-drawn work ethic. To be honest though, I was originally leaning towards  “faking a path to overcoming the overwhelm” as a tagline.  On any given day, I walk out into the world wearing my ...