High on Happiness

Posts Tagged ‘resilience’

When you are weary, you may forget.  The heaviness can overwhelm you.  You pull away from things, seeking only more forgetfulness, wanting it to be total.

It is okay to be weary.  We have only so much energy to spend on any given day.  Weariness means we need rest.

But it’s not in the interest of your well-being for weariness to become a way of life.  If you pull away long enough, you will cease to be.  You are made for reaching out, for discovering.  Pulling away from things day after day means you need to remember.

And here are things to recall:  You are capable of smiling and of kindness.  You can be curious.  You can try on new thoughts.  You can be helpful.  You can be brave, if only enough to open the door and stand outside and feel the fresh air moving in and out of your lungs.

You are capable of seeing goodness and beauty, because goodness and beauty live within you.

This moment, this one right now, is brand new.  You are capable of letting the past be passed.  You can imagine today is your birthday.

It’s no easy thing, to birth springtime.  To burst open the countless buds, to push up the countless blades of grass and stalks of flowers, takes power.

This is more than a smooth transposition of seasons, after all.  This is a resurrection of life from the cold tomb of winter across an entire hemisphere.  It’s a raucous time, the wild escaping of life’s new dreams from their long hibernation.

And so the winds blow, their breath fierce as a lion’s, sweeping along the migrating birds, carrying the last of the snow, testing the new life for toughness.  It will need to be tough; earth life requires some grit, some resilience.

But it requires tenderness, too: hearts that can be moved by kindness, by beauty.  It brings forth delicate creatures, soft and sweet at their births.  And so the March winds blow, their breath as gentle as a lamb’s, ferrying feathery seeds and swaddling the new life in birdsong.

“An optimist is the human personification of spring.” ~Susan J. Bissonette

Spring is like the Energizer bunny:  It just keeps going, and going, and going.  Even this week’s cold spell and storms haven’t stopped it.  The flowers keep coming, regardless, and my winter-starved eyes are feasting in their unfolding colors.

Susan Bissonette was right on target in linking optimism and spring.  Both the season and the human trait sing of resilience and renewal.  Despite setbacks, they’re undaunted.  They weather the storms.  They’re filled with purpose.  They trust in the life force that pushes its vision into realization through their willingness to keep on keeping on.

Believing there’s a summer ahead and the potential for a bountiful harvest, you put setbacks in perspective.  You may be damaged and bruised, but something beautiful lies ahead, and you know it in the depths of your being, even when you can’t quite see exactly how it will work out.

I watched the flowers in the cold rain.  They curled inward and surrendered to its force.  After it passed and the sun’s rays once again caressed them, they opened and bathed themselves in its light.  And even though their petals were weakened and their stems bent, they pushed into the light and, basking in its comfort and power, were made whole and beautiful again.

Spring always follows winter.  Dawn always follows night.  When life brings its setbacks and storms, remember that.  Be like a flower in the rain.  Be an optimist.  Keep the faith.

Suddenly the roadside is strewn with tiny coltsfoot, as if Mother Nature had waltzed through with a hole in her pocket, dropping bright gold coins.

Gather a few.  Spend them on some new beginnings.  That’s what they symbolize after all—the season of fresh starts.

Dig out your dream-seeds.  Plan a new garden.  Renew your goals and the promises you made to yourself about moving toward the tomorrow stars that sparkle on the edges of your mind.  Anything is possible.  Make a fresh start.

It’s the season of renewal.  Breathe in its hope and gladness.  Feel the resilience of happiness springing anew in your heart.

“I can! I can!” sing the flowers.  Despite winter’s frozen night, the sun has returned to warm the nurturing soil.  Send down some new roots.  Push up some new shoots.  The whole of nature is conspiring for the growth and blossoming of your dreams.