Living: the ultimate team sport

Baby Boomer Resilience

Posted on March 13, 2014 Updated on March 13, 2014

How resilient are you?

How readily do you bounce back when you’ve been cut off at the knees?  when you’ve experienced a long streak of bad luck?  when your hopes and dreams are just that: hopes, and dreams?

I am inspired to write this brief piece today because of an extraordinary act of resilience that I witness about this time each year.

Eleven years ago my daughter opened up a bridal party business that was very successful.  She started the business in August 2003 and the Grand Opening of the store occurred in March of that same year.  One of her vendors, a custom jewelry designer, sent her a live plant in celebration of her store’s opening.  The sweet smelling floral plant was appropriately named, Bridal Veil (stephanotis floribunda).

I had the privilege of working at my daughter’s boutique from its inception, and then off and on when she needed extra help with the bridal parties.  Approximately two weeks after her store’s opening, the Bridal Veil plant had come to its seasonal end so I took it home and planted it in my backyard, just underneath my kitchen window, cutting the greenery down to the dirt.  And every year about this time, the Bridal Veil shoots break through the ground and seem to announce, “Spring is back and so am I.”

I am certain that you know people who have exhibited far more heroic and miraculous resilience than this silly plant’s arrival each year – so have I – but I still can’t help but be impressed and pleased, each and every year that it does.  It has survived 100 degree (Fahrenheit) temperatures and 10 degree temps, not to mention a blanket of snow that manages to cover it when the snow starts falling around Washington State.

But each year, it comes back, and each year, I’m still surprised and as pleased as Punch! Definition: feeling great delight or pride.

Many of us would give up at the first degree of scorching heat and we certainly might throw in the towel when the snowflakes start to fly.  I don’t want to be less resilient than the stephanotis floribunda.

Do you?