Resilient–Be Encouraged

The word resilient means

• Marked by the ability to recover readily, as from misfortune.
• Capable of returning to an original shape or position, as after having been compressed.
• Flexible is a synonym

Resilience is the process of facing adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or extreme stress and “bouncing back” successfully without becoming too negatively affected by the experience.

Victoria Ruvolo was driving home from a niece’s piano recital one wintery evening in 2004 when a large object smashed through her windshield, hitting with such force that it broke every bone in her face. The object turned out to be a frozen turkey. The thrower: a teenage boy named Ryan Cushing, out for a joyride with friends in a stolen car. Ruvolo’s passenger managed to grab the steering wheel, push Ruvolo’s foot off the gas pedal and steer them onto the shoulder. After being rushed to the hospital, Ruvolo remained in an induced coma for two weeks.

When it was safe to operate, the doctors began painstakingly putting Ruvolo back together. The then-44-year-old office manager from Long Island was left with three titanium plates in her left cheek, one plate in her right cheek, and a screen holding her left eye in place. Her family was told that she might have permanent brain damage and was unlikely to be capable of living on her own.

But that wasn’t a prediction Ruvolo was ready to accept. She had survived tragedies before. Two of her brothers died in separate incidents when she was a teenager. At age 35 she miscarried a much-longed-for child. Somehow, she had found the strength to come through those losses, and she was determined that she would make it through this one, too.

With a devastated face, and a questionable future ahead of her, Ruvolo had plenty of good reasons to sink into anger and depression. But she didn’t. Instead, even as she was still undergoing a series of reconstructive surgeries, she told herself, “This moping isn’t going to get me anywhere.”

Contrary to her grim prognosis, she was back at work within eight months, living on her own, and speaking regularly to at-risk youths about ways to improve their lives.

A lesson from the lawn.

Imagine if a blade of grass decided it had had enough. It was done with having its head snipped off every weekend and its seeds – its future – cut off in their prime. Who could blame it? Yet, what does that ole’ blade of grass do? It doesn’t say:  “I give up! I’m getting nowhere!” 

It just keeps on growing. It continually takes in the energy from the sunlight and magically converts carbon dioxide from the air into food to make more leaves and more seeds.

A blade of grass is resilient. You too, can learn to be as resilient as the grass.

You may be cut down on a regular basis, yet your strength is in standing up, dusting yourself off, and starting all over again. Even when grass is covered in concrete, it finds a way to grow up through the cracks.

And, so must you.

Proverbs 24:16 (KJV) For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

Source for Ruvolo story  https://experiencelife.com/article/the-5-best-ways-to-build-resiliency/