Resilience

-(of a substance or object) able to recoil or spring back into shape after bending, stretching, or being compressed

-(of a person or animal) able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions

This word has been my mantra for the past couple months and I feel as though, just now, I have finally regained my original shape after having being bent, stretched, and broken at times. The definition almost completely fits except for the part about recoil or springing back as it gives an image of immediate recovery. I’m in the car with my husband and my dog- on our way to the canyon for a spring day of climbing (no matter the rain). This is the second time this week that I’ve made it outside to climb after over a month of not being able to. Its been a long time since my last blog post- and a hard couple months.

The thing is that, as a nurse, I am constantly surrounded by illness and death and these past couple months have been a little more so than usual. While my work has been particularly stressful, I had a very unnerving experience in early March with my best friend who had one two many close calls during the childbirth of her first baby. She's just fine now, but it only reinforced that constant presence in my life of: Go LIVE Now While You Still Can. People’s lives change on a dime every day. Having this constant reminder in my life is usually a blessing: the perspective it provides me with, and the understanding that comes from being with people in their most difficult moments. Sometimes, though, you can get to feeling a little broken from it all. And while some things are going on in my life that still have me filled with worry, it is amazing how a day at the crag can relax whatever tightness was filling my head.

Much like the Taoist teaching that it is a whole lot easier to go with the bends of the stream than try to redirect its flow, climbing requires a certain yielding or cooperation with the way things are. At the same time it gives the most freedom that I know. Give and take. Resilience.