Bitter or Better!

Well, things are calming down around here a bit. Bill is home amazingly quickly. Things are moving along as well as they possibly could on the physical plain. The mental, emotional plain is a whole other issue. I find it interesting that most of us "suck it up", "pull it together", "make it work" etc. as long as we must. The trick is in not falling apart when things slow down and are not so intensely necessary.

That is where our little family is now. A friend hugs one of the children who seems to be doing okay and she falls apart. A simple question is asked and receives a "snappy" answer. Some of us want to hide and never deal. Some of us talk about it repeatedly. It occupies every spare minute of our brain "free" time. While sitting at church or at school or anywhere else, while driving along, you suddenly realize that your mind is occupied with thoughts of the event that so drastically changed your life, your whole family's lives. Everyone feels like they are the singular one experiencing these feelings until you get together and begin to talk.

Life is full of these events. None of us knows when the next one will pop up. So we start living our days as we always have, trying to push those thoughts to the back of our minds, hoping the next thing will never come about. The next one comes and somehow, even though we hate it, we repeat the process. Each time we're hoping nothing like this happens again.

The cycle of life involves people dealing, each in his/her own way with events that we never would choose. The difference then is to make the best of each event, to learn and grow rather than become bitter. We all are hoping to become better through our experiences. What is the difference between those who do and those who don't? I wish I knew but I do know that resilience is a gift that some of us are born with and some of us learn. It is one of the most precious gifts we have. Some of us use it, some don't.