Remembering Our Resilience
I’ll never forget one of the most powerful moments of insight I’ve ever experienced. I could physically feel it wash over me.
The moment I realized the plant I had been neglecting for months and months, yet continued to hang on and persist living despite the gross neglect it had endured, punched through one of the most deeply ingrained, hardened in stone beliefs I held in my core - that I am deservedly and irrevocably broken and unacceptable.
That moment was a lifeline - thin and fragile at first, but as I hung on and unraveled that line, bit by bit I began to understand so much of the suffering I endured in my life.
My life didn’t change overnight. For most of us, that’s usually not how change happens. Like a plant, change and growth happens in the slow accumulation of a million small, courageous moments. It isn’t flashy or fast but it’s true and it works.
Plants can teach us resilience in so many ways. The number of times I have been certain a plant was dead, but then it came back to life, is shocking. When you realize that plants strive to live, it can take the pressure off a tad and allow you to fill a supportive role and let go of feeling like it’s all on you.
Caring for plants is a process that provides an abundance of resilience building opportunities and with intention and support, expanding your resilience skills can be beautiful, even if challenging.
