Building Resilience in a Chaotic World

Today, we celebrated my oldest son's twentieth birthday.  It has been hard on my children since both my girls and my son have had to spend their birthday trapped indoors with just family on their birthdays.  Over the years, I've tried to pour a sense of resiliency in my children's lives.  Resiliency is the ability to recover from hardships and become flexible.  This is a particularly hard skill for me because I am a perfectionist.  The idea of making a mistake brings dread.  However, when we live our lives unable to "roll with the punches," we live in a constant state of fear.  What ifs become our mantra.  I remember working for an employer who was blind, but also had an amazing sense of humor.  He asked me to drive him to the airport.  I had no idea how to get their other than some vague directions.  After an hour, he began to suspect something.  He asked what was taking so long.  I had a dilemma.  I could be honest and admit that I messed up or fake it.  I told him traffic was horrible.  Before you are too shocked, I did come clean at the airport, and he got a good laugh out of the moment.  He also imparted some wisdom.  Life is not about perfect moments.  It's about making the best out of imperfect moments.  He had lost his sight while working as a law enforcement officer.  He turned what could be a tragic moment into triumph by becoming a motivational speaker.  He mentioned that I needed to learn to embrace my mistakes and learn from them.  Becoming flexible and working with what is thrown at me would be the only way I could live fearless.  This was great advice that I am trying to continue to put into practice daily.  My children are learning to make the most of what life throws at them.  They are trying to embrace the concept that doing your best is enough.  Perfection is only something we find in the movies.  So Happy Birthday to my children who are growing every day.  I am proud of the amazing young adults you have become!

 Have a great week high-heeled warriors!

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