The Silver Lining

It’s that time of year again, where our kids go back to school and summer break is over. Summer was not at all what any of us had anticipated and it almost feels as if we were robbed of something.  Well, not only feels like, but we were.  The happy days of cookouts with friends and neighbors were all missed as well as the festivals in town and all of the other wonderful summertime activities we normally do. 

Now, we are beginning the school year in a way that we have never experienced in our lives. As parents we work to make it feel like “normal”, but we all know that we have such different worries this year. 

This year has been rough on all of us and we have worked hard to see the silver lining.  I know I have focused on the change in our world that will hopefully place more value on time with family and even our home space.

 Sometimes, it feels like a chore to look for the silver lining and we push back on it.  That is normal but we cannot stay in the negative if we want to keep putting one foot in front of the other. The only way to push forward toward resiliency, is to keep looking for the silver lining. That is the rope that pulls us forward. 

As a society, we have learned immediate gratification through so many ways.  If we want something, we merely order it online and it’s here within one or two days. We can even order cars and couches in that same way.  What the pandemic has done however, is to remind us of patience.  Again, we have pushed back on that but to no avail. This virus has continued to teach us that we are not in control and patience is a must. 

Through this, we are learning to control what we can and what is within our reach but to sit on our hands regarding the rest and to use coping tools.   

More than anything we are learning to be flexible.  As we watch our kids change how they have learned to be educated and their teachers change how they have taught, we witness not only flexibility, but creativity.  I have heard of some of the most amazing ways to teach students in new and innovative ways, but I have also heard of how parents are making their homes classrooms and creatively adjusting their work life to be a support to their kids.   

Our kids seem to be rolling with the punches and we all have to do the same.  We need to draw upon the same patience and resiliency to continue to be flexible as we all stumble through these changes. 

As I speak to our team members, I watch as they are creative and flexibly in how to reach clients and to continue to do the needed work that so many now need to deal with all the changes. 

Human nature and its adaptability amaze me.  We are not so easily dissuaded or taken over. We find ways to overcome.  That is both powerful and empowering. 

I read somewhere that resilient kids are not born, they are created.  Well our kids right now are being challenged to be resilient.  I am going to choose to look at that as a silver lining. I am going to keep looking for the silver lining even when it feels the darkest. 

I am challenging all of you to do the same.  Choose to look for the silver lining.  That is the rope that will continue to pull you forward.