Tag: challenges

Happy…

heartaversary!

DSC_9250It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.

Edmund Hillary

Tomorrow marks two years and a day that we will celebrate. The details are private but the message is a common one.

Much is written on overcoming adversity and my views tend to line up with those who embrace a challenge rather than those who take it as an excuse to give up and throw in the towel.

It’s easy to get in our own way when life interjects those defining moments. Those things that you didn’t plan on, those challenges that you didn’t know were just around the corner.

Two years ago when life handed him a life or death challenge, he met it, one light pole at a time, and watching him age backwards from that day is a joy to see.

Happy heartaversary my sweet man, your strength continues to inspire me.

 

 

Resilience…

in the aftermath.

DSC_0011-2In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.

Aristotle

We were in Waterton National Park last fall and left the day before the park was closed due to a rapidly approaching forest fire that ultimately burned over 47,500 acres.

This summer upon my return I was pleased to see the resilience of nature. Bright bits of green and wildflowers brightened the scarred landscape and all around you could see signs of recovery.

Life is about challenge and waiting for a completely clear path is immobilizing. For every obstacle that is removed another will inevitably take its place.

For me this image is a visual reminder that not everything is permanent and that the quality we need to strive for is resilience.

Adaptation in the face of adversity.

 

 

 

On challenges…

and compassion.

DSC_2910-Edit-2What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Perhaps it’s the change in our weather that’s making me feel more than a little philosophical but today my thoughts are centered around the idea that we learn so much more from the things that don’t go right than we ever do from the things that do.

I think it’s the challenges that create the most growth. How we view them, how we react to them, what we take away from them.

I also think that facing challenges builds more compassion for others as well.

And we could all use a little more of that couldn’t we?