Well, think about it for a while. Resiliency is the ability to hold strong. I think that is something you’ve learned since I first got to know you…that makes me happy. 
) Call it life-elasticity, if you will. That is what makes us stronger. I think it’s that you are learning that things don’t necessarily have to be bounced back from because most things aren’t that big of a deal. Like I told Kathy today when she asked me if I would be okay with being alone with her boss tomorrow. I asked if she were going to hit me or break my leg or something. Kathy told me no and gave me a weird look. I said, “Well, unless she is going to physically hurt me, it wouldn’t bother me. Emotionally, I told her, Cheryl means nothing to me. In ten years anything she says to me or does to me isn’t going to mean anything whatsoever because she has no hold over me. None. Why should she? I said I probably wouldn’t be there in ten years even if Cheryl were.
Kathy thought about that and said that I was right. It just doesn’t matter to me. Resilience depends on how you view what is happening. How much are you going to let these thing affect your life? How much are they going to mean to you in even a year, let alone five or ten years? How much can they change the way your whole life turns out? How much are they affecting the one relationship that means much of anything? If the answer is “not much,” bouncing back may not even be a part of it. I like this definition best because it covers it all: the ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change. It’s not about bouncing back, necessarily. It’s not about bad things happening even. It’s just the ability to make sure your mind can wrap itself around what is happening to you and to accept it, good or bad. “Adjust to” is the key there. Adjust to. Absorb into your form of be. Make into a part of your being. Take in the situation and just be okay with it, come high water or a brick wall. God takes care of the rest.
ach
You’re making me think too much lately.
*wanders off to ponder more*
*comes back to ask:*
Why does your neighbor keep doing that? I’d quit after the first time of not getting an answer.
*wanders off again, shaking head*
- posted by orang-utan @ 8/26/2003 08:21:34 PM
What have OTHERS said in response?