It’s just life! Things happen! Sometimes you may just do all the right things and things don’t go as planned. That’s happened to me, to all of us. We may feel discouraged or disheartened but these are the things that make the mortar that molds the clay. It’s the necessary ingredients for building a strong foundation regardless of whatever goals we’re pursuing in life.

Did it hurt? Yes. Is it frustrating! Oh God yes! But are we still here? Yes. That’s the best of all the yeses.

So whatever happened or is happening I hope you’re not giving up.

Recently I’ve initiated an art program to encourage resilience among our children since the category 5 hurricane Melissa in our country and I’ve yet to achieve my target. I’ve designed a poster and banner and it stayed up until it was time to take it down. Not to mention the number of times it fell flat on its face or back since we first mounted it. God knows I’m grateful to my father for remounting it every time. My following decreased from 53 to 49 and I was not able to start with the few students I had because it would defeat the purpose of the program.

I’ve found that while persons have commended the initiation they are reluctant to actually participate and that created a really blank space in my heart. My response was neutral and other times I’ve thought perhaps I should not have employed my efforts there.

Even so I am undefeated I’ve allowed myself to process that blank space, the feelings of being unseen and unheard. I have allowed myself to pause unhurried until I’ve arrived at a new strategy so I may rebound.

And that’s resilience, I am practicing the resilience I want the children to model. Being resilient doesn’t mean exempting yourself from feeling the brunt of whatever sharp detours or obstacles life throws at you. It doesn’t mean that you’re not allowed to pause or not know what to do. Resilience simply means to continue steering the path forward regardless of the difficulties. The difficulty must never be allowed to define how your vision ends. Always maintain the vision even if things change.