A Form Of Sustenance

Resilience, when asked to define and explain the act of being resilient, can be a hard thing to describe. It is something everyone must be at one point in their lives, and what some people must be every day. There are different levels to it, depending on what the person is going through at the time. However, resilience is commonly described as just staying strong in a tough situation or time in a person’s life. When something goes wrong, or something bad happens, the person affected doesn’t let it break them. They stand strong against whatever is being thrown at them, but they bend when they need to. Someone who is resilient is flexible, making sure they don’t crack under pressure. As Robert Jordan said in The Fires of Heaven, “The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.”

People have learned to be resilient in order to overcome serious hardships. A person’s resilience can be seen through how they handle bad experiences; to be resilient in the face of adversity. People who never give up and always fight back even when it gets hard are resilient. Some believe that resilience is a trait that can be learned.

Resilience is about how an individual deals, resists, recovers and learns from adversity’s in life. If a child is resilient they are less likely to be damaged as a result of negative experiences and are more likely to learn from and move on. In order for a child to be resilient they need to believe in themselves and have others they can rely on in their lives.

For some people the strong word resilience can impact one’s life in a significant way. Overall, resiliency is having the ability to still enjoy and continue your life with positive, good times, regardless of a hard past or bad experience. It can be shown in various ways throughout a text, including the setting, the plot, and characterization. This is how the texts, The Other Wes Moore, The Art of Resilience, and The Third and Final Continent share their common theme. This theme the three texts convey is that resiliency is vital for a positive as well as successful life.

Resilience is the power or the ability to return to the original form. “Resilience is born by grounding yourself in your own loveliness, hitting notes you thought were way out of your range” (94). Father Gregory Boyle says this because he knows that resilience is needed in order to change. Resilience is important because we can become better people by doing things, we thought we couldn’t do. In the book, Tattoos on the Heart, The Power of Boundless Compassion, by Father Gregory Boyle, resilience is essential in our lives because it is the key to do better.

Saying that, no one person thinks the same, it’s what makes us all unique. Though, I would be pleased to say these tie together to make my definition make sense. The first part of my definition, resilience is the capability of a person to bounce back from a hard time. I fixated on this to explain my life experience in having to be resilient with my family members to get to where we are now. The second parts, to get back on their feet after stumbling, was expressed by Jeannette Walls. Again and again, we seem to notice a pattern in the book where the Walls family move to somewhere new and build a whole life there. They don’t let their past stop them and through the hard times, they still manage to build something new for themselves. The last part, to understand that there is no end and you can always become better, would be from Elizabeth Edwards for support. From her book on resilience, the quote used states that if you are resilient, you’d be able to judge what you can do from there. This connects to my definition because it explains that resilience helps you deal and even become better when you

Resilience is the ability to overcome struggles. In the book Night, Elie Wiesel is put into a concentration camp during the Holocaust. During his time there, Elie would not have been able to be so resilient without his father by his side. In Boys in The Boat, Joe Rantz would also have struggled to overcome his struggles without his dad. However, without Joe’s father treating him so badly throughout his childhood Joe might not have been so motivated to prove to his father that he was strong. In both books, Joe and Elie both demonstrate resilience by using their family to overcome their struggles.

Resilience is the power or the ability to return to the original form. “Resilience is born by grounding yourself in your own loveliness, hitting notes you thought were way out of your range” (94). Father Gregory Boyle says this because he knows that resilience is needed in order to change. Resilience is important because we can become better people by doing things, we thought we couldn’t do. In the book, Tattoos on the Heart, The Power of Boundless Compassion, Boyle claims resilience is essential in our lives because it is the key to do better.

There are varieties of definitions in regards with resilience based on different perspectives (Arrington et al., 2000). For instance, from a developmental perspective, resilience can be defined as positive and successful outcomes despite challenging situations (Masten, 2007; Windle, 2010). Resilience can also be defined as recovery to normal functioning from adversity or coping well under currently risk conditions (Masten, 2007; Windle, 2010). However, not every language has the word “resilience”. For example, a phrase, “the ability to cope with adversity” (Ungar et al.,

Resilience is the ability to overcome hard situations, learn from mistakes, and use the past to get over future hardships. Jeanette Walls shows resilience in many ways. Although her family is not too successful and live a much more

Resilience is a skill that you develop over time through your experiences. People with this quality are able to gather their strength and keep going even when it seems futile to do so. Human resilience can be defined as the ability to come from your lowest point, back to your highest. It is the ability to get back up even when everything and everyone is pushing you down. Resilience can be expressed in several different ways and different people will have different beliefs on what it means to be resilient. In The Glass Castle, Jeanette Walls and her family face numerous trials that require resilience to carry on from. Examples of this quality can be found in both The Glass Castle and in a quote from Elizabeth Edwards.

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from life’s daily challenges it’s about being strong and having the ability to respond positively to what life throws at us. We may find ourselves in many challenging and stressful situations throughout life however having the skills needed to cope and deal with them helps us have an effective response to all negative situations.

As a society, each and every one of us possesses an inner strength that aids us to overcome the impediments in life that we may face. This inner strength is what we call our human spirit.

After reading the article, “Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way”, by Anna Harrington, I have a better understanding of resilience and how it affects my well-being. Resilience is best described as an attribute that allows me to overcome negative situations in a stronger more knowledgeable manner (Harrington, 2012). If I face these negative situations with positive emotions, strong spiritual principles, and a healthier body I should be able to live “a happier, more fulfilled life”(Harrington, 2012, pg.30). Harrington goes on to say that if I implement these characteristics into my lifestyle, I could experience social benefits, in addition to a more substantial family life (2012). I do strongly believe, that if I keep God first and maintain a resilient demeanor, anything could be obtainable in regards to my family life, my career, and even my education at Bethel.

In ancient Israelite culture, a woman’s entire life, from her societal standing to her source of income, rested entirely upon her husband’s shoulders. In the beginning of the book of Ruth, even though there is a great famine in the land, Naomi is still taken care of because she has the security of her husband and sons. However, when her husband and sons pass away, she is left with absolutely nothing because as a woman, she is viewed as essentially a second-class citizen at best. After the death the death of her husband and sons, Naomi turned to the only family she had left, her two widowed daughter-in-laws. She tried to convince both of them to follow her to Bethlehem. One of them refused, but Ruth decided to follow Naomi.