HOPE Alliance Newsletter

Edition #6 April 2024

The Unlikely Ones

This flower grows on our patio in the same spot every summer. It’s a symbol of resilience thriving in a rather unlikely place. The tiny yellow pansy symbolizes something I've learned through my experiences; surviving is one thing, but thriving is entirely different. Surviving is biological. Thriving takes will.

The flower grows in a crack not more than an eighth inch wide between two three-inch thick paving stones. It gets only rainwater and natural sunlight to nourish it, yet it thrives in this wild, unforgiving place. Despite its less-than-optimal surroundings, there's something about this particular flower that allows it to do more than survive. It has an identity and a purpose in its viable beauty. Perhaps it's just random, or maybe there's some luck involved, but it seems unlikely these would be enough for the flower to shine for the world. This flower is resilient.

Resilient people also often quietly assert themselves in a world that isn’t as kind and enabling as they'd wish. They don't necessarily come from supportive environments. They may not enjoy the privileges of family, money, or opportunity. But still, they thrive. They possess enabling qualities, projecting confidence in their identity and purpose. While others suffer from identity diffusion, resilient people stay grounded in who they are, and who they strive to be. They don't lose sight of what they aspire to be for themselves, and others.

Resilient people understand that the universe doesn't happen to them, they happen to it. They project their best. Resilient people have gratitude for the things they have and little animosity toward things they don't. They understand how to be authentic and grounded while avoiding superficial relationships and insincere people. They don't waste time attending to things that don't reinforce efforts to actualize their goals and continue becoming the individuals they strive to be.

Resilient people respect themselves and others in whom they see themselves. They understand the importance of learning and gaining experiences that support their aspirations. They know how to seek mutually beneficial relationships with others who will be alternate mirrors reflecting opportunity and possibility. Resilient people assume full responsibility for their actions, feelings, and words. They carry no burden of blame or disdain for others. They implicitly know that most of what occurs around them is uncontrollable, but their reaction to it is entirely up to them.

Resilience isn't easy. Navigating the path toward resilience is a hard road, and that path chooses us more often than we choose it. Resilient people accept the things they can't control, and pursue agency over what they can. They work with what they have to make the best of things. The little flower isn't supposed to thrive, yet it does in the unlikeliest places.

This little flower reminds me of myself.