Life and Living
An Art of Personal Resilience
The Sunday Dispatch ~ June 4, 2023
At times life changes faster than you can scramble. Pillars shift, maybe even crumble, making it difficult to see how to get through.
Resilience is the capacity to adapt to changing circumstances and bounce back from adversity, sometimes despite the odds. Being resilient isn’t something one acquires overnight. It is something you build carefully over time, much like cultivating a writing practice.
More than ten years ago, I decided to write down my daily observations of the weather — precipitation, temperature, cloud cover — I eventually started recording the humidity and atmospheric pressure as well. Over the years, this daily routine took over every page of an entire journal. Only recently was I compelled to visit the bookstore down the street to buy another.
That first book contains more than ten years of weather observations.
Holding fast to this morning routine helped me stay grounded and aware of what is happening in the atmosphere around me. It is a kind of meditation, checking in with the elements every day.
As I get older, there are two notable forces that tug at my heart — the one that urges me to go out adventuring into the world, to see new things…
