Resilience

This word has seemed to come up again and again this last week in everything I have touched.  It actually began with nature itself and branched out from there.  As we had endured the "dog days of summer" and watched things get dryer and browner, I found that I was obsessing over the weather and its possible outcome.  I'm sure that I was not unlike many others in this.  The thing that I had forgotten was the unbelievable way nature can recover when given a chance.  No more than two days after the first good soaking rain we had in the last two months, I was walking JC, our dog, and was amazed to see small white flowers poking up through one of the pastures we walk past.  Admittedly, they were probably just weeds, but I was struck at how quickly nature comes back and proves that it is ready to grow again.  Absolutely astounding.  I talked to JC about it, but found that she was not as amazed as I was.

Later that week, I was invited to a day of activities and review with one of our regular customers.  They have this meeting once a year for their employees and suppliers.  Much of the meeting is about the past year and the goals of the company going forward, but one of the things they always do is bring in an outside speaker. The speaker typically doesn't come with a message about their specific business, but brings a motivational message.  The year's speaker was Charlie Wittmack.  If you've not heard of him, you should learn more about the man.  He is an extreme triathlete with several very prestigious accomplishments to his name.  Although his story is amazing, that wasn't what truly moved me.  I listened as he described the number of times he failed, or came to the point of quitting, and was able to reach down inside himself and find what it took to continue, or try again.  One of the things that Charlie said to us was that he knew each of us would be able to climb Mt Everest if it was something we decided to do.  Hmm, I'm not sure what I think about that, but Charlie truly portrays resilience.

Most of you know that I have two amazing kids.....not unlike most other parents, but when I think about this word, it really applies to both.  Andrew continues to come up against changes and decisions that come from leaving college and entering adulthood.  In his world, these are big and it has been interesting to watch the way he has handled things and the energy that some of them have sapped from him.  On the other hand, Meg has faced being back in school, leaving a world she loved this summer (at camp) and regaining a full understanding of what college is.  Additionally, she is taking a very full offering of classes and work this year.  The need for resilience is huge.  On top of that, as she continues to work through all of the medical challenges, she wonders why it takes so much sleep.  Being resilient takes effort.

Of course, as I've been thinking about all of this, it has really brought me to question the way we go through our daily lives, and what type of resilience we carry within.  Some time ago, I had a really good conversation with a friend about will power, and whether or not will power was something that wears out.  We came to the conclusion that it is.  Consider dieting - it always seems that you have a great deal of will power at the beginning, and then with time, willpower tends to wane, making it harder and harder to lose weight.  I think that resilience may work the same way. With a really high need to be resilient, the amount you have available gets 'used up.' leaving less ability to come back from challenges.  However, I also believe that if the world gives us a chance,  we can rebuild the amount of resilience we have in our reservoir.  So, the challenge then becomes to get through the tough times and take a breather to rebuild when we get to the other side.  Nothing really new here, but everything I encountered last week brought me to this realization.

At the Toybox, things are really filling up. After all of the items that I completed while off work, the list of work to be done has been refilled.  It is time to get started on holiday gifts for family, and in the last year or so I have been asked for gifts for organizations I support to use as fund raisers.  Additionally, after getting the chest of drawers, Sara has decided she needs a set of drawers next to her writing desk.  There are also a couple of very exciting projects coming up, but as one of them will be a gift to a life long friend, I am going to speak about it very carefully.  Anyway, lots of panel products and lumber to be purchased in the next few months.  This is exciting stuff.  We will have to see if I can stay in front of all of it.

Have a great week.  Tell me what you plan to create as gifts for your friends and family for the holidays.  Get busy, they're just around the corner.