On Resilience

Thank you…Challenges

I know what you’re thinking. Yeah, right. Who, after all, welcomes adversity? Some people are luckier than others, that’s a fact. But at one point or another, you may be felled by a challenge so crippling it hurls you to your knees. A health crisis. A personal loss. A business setback. A moment of clarity when…

On Resilience: Staying In The Game

Resilience means different things to different people but ultimately is about pushing past challenges. How we do that is in large part a matter of perspective. Litigation attorney Courtney Perez, a partner at Carter Arnett PLLC, had always viewed resilience as something to be endured, like “taking the punches.” For her, resilience has been all about…

Sometimes Resilience Means Enough Words

When was the last time you chose silence over chatter? Maybe an object of beauty rendered you beyond words, or a silly argument, or even just the nonstop press of life. A friend shared her own story of resilience and “enough words” during a car ride with her teenage son. From the sound of…

Resilience: Pay Attention to Small Openings

The other day I presented my new workshop on resilience to a group of medical residents. I was forewarned by the physician who invited me to present not to raise my hopes about the eagerness of the audience. “These guys are overworked, burned out, and probably a bit dubious about a workshop touting individual resilience when the…

14 Thoughts on Remembrance and Resilience

Today marks 14 years since my first husband’s death. Brett died of a medulloblastoma brain tumor, which typically affects children ages five and under. Except he was 32 when diagnosed and 39 when he died. Some anniversaries hit especially hard. This one feels that way maybe because the date nearly slipped my mind. I got…

The Power of Hope

The holidays are a tender time for many of us. We run ourselves ragged looking for the perfect gift items and trying to squeeze in every last holiday party. Night after night someone or something requires our attention. Like clockwork, we begin the month of December with ambitious plans only to lose steam mid-month. How will…

Spread Hope on Children’s Grief Awareness Day

I recently finished Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air. The memoir is wrenching, elegant, and unforgettable. For those who haven’t read it, Paul Kalanithi was a brilliant neurosurgeon at Stanford who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He and his wife Lucy, also a physician, became parents just weeks before Paul’s death. This is a book…

How Do You Express Yourself?

The other day while heading to a meeting I nearly walked into a street pole staring at a red-headed woman steps in front of me. The sun lit her long coppery hair like water on glass. It was beautiful to watch her striding in the morning light. “I love your hair,” I told her. “Thank you so much,” she…