RESILENCE

                               My Christmas Catus blooms just in time.

Plants have to be resilient to survive in my house. Sometimes I send them to the hospital which is Sandra's house.  Either I forget to water them or I water them too much.  We all have our talents and it is important to remember no single person can do everything.  But we can keep trying.

Dad and I went down to the dyke for our outing today looking for snowy owls but it was a very gray day with low clouds touching the earth.  I did not stick to my plan to put my Christmas things away as Sandra noticed when she came over; bringing dad mincemeat tarts would you believe!  His favorite among many!  Nice warm socks for me just what I needed.

"A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination"

"It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another".   --Nelson Mandela  from "Notes To The Future."

This same theme is carried out in the book "Tattoos on the Heart"   Gregory Boyle created an organization to provide jobs, job training, and encouragement to the deeply scared gang members in Los Angelous.  They learn to love themselves and also find joy in loving and caring about others.  This is not easy when one comes from an abusive background and joining a gang is a way to survive.

 

Love and patience are so important as we struggle to be resilient.   A combination that allows compassion for others to free us from self-preoccupation and become aware of the problems and needs of others.
 

 

"Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded, it is a covenant between equals."  Authentic and caring and respecting.  Letting others share your pain and let them be a part of all you are.

 

In scripture Jesus is in a house packed with people and there was no more room for anyone to come in the door; so the friends of the paralytic open the roof (of straw) and lower him down to the feet of Jesus.  Outsiders need to be included if they are to be healed.  Jesus ate with outcasts rendering them acceptable.  "The world had deemed them disgraceful, and shameful and outside of God's love and grace."  Jesus looks at the heart.  Know that his love never lets go and if we cling to the sacredness of unconditional love we become stronger.

 

"Sometimes it's necessary to reteach a person their loveliness."  --poet Galaway Kinnell

 

When we walked through the park we discovered evergreen trees that had been decorated with a few tiny little balls and they sparkled even with the little sun light there was.

 

 Compassion flows from God who shares our pain and keeps picking us up when we fall
               and so with his help I believe it is possible to become resilient.