Just a couple of weeks ago, I had been giving a new presentation at work. It seems like months ago now, but this theme has been working on me. I was talking to middle and high schoolers about resilience. When I asked them what they thought it meant, they almost always responded with some form of "bouncing back."
It's understandable since that is often how we think of it. Recently, a poem called Optimism by Jane Hirshfield came across the OnBeing podcast. In it, she offers a different version of resilience. Rather than returning to their previous form, someone with resilience uses the challenges and obstacles as ways to grow differently, rather than trying the same thing that may have at least partially brought about that challenge.
I am hopeful that I'll use this lesson to learn some things from all of this and not just go back to the way things were before. Resilience would call me to grow differently and not just bounce back.
