A seedling drops to the ground, sends out tiny shoots to root itself and begins to fight its way toward the light. If you’ve ever noticed, a tree never grows in a perfectly straight line. Each branch and root winds its way in and around every obstacle in its path and adapts to every adversity becoming stronger.

 

Everyone experiences adversity in their life – the job you didn’t get, the relationship that didn’t work out, losing someone you love. We tend to look at hardship as a setback or failure and yet it’s not something any of us can avoid. What truly shapes us then is what happens because of that adversity. Do we shrivel up and die or do we adapt and find healthy soil and fight our way to the light?

 

Resilience is something that’s planted inside each of us. It wants you to keep growing and reaching upward and outward. If you ever have a hard time remembering that, go for a walk and study all the bends and knots in a tree; witness all the times its path was blocked by concrete or boulders and how it worked its way around every obstacle. All those twists and turns, the cracks and scars make us who we are and fosters our resilience to keep growing.