Resilience

Phoenix from the Ashes.Wikipedia commons.public domain

I love that word resilience.  It sort of bounces off my tongue.  It feels good to say it, hopeful somehow. 

Who are some of the most resilient people you know?  I am thinking of people who have gone through holocausts, rapes, murders, the loss of their families.  And still they go on.  They set it aside and do what has to be done to survive.  Think about all the natural disasters around the world, and the way people pick up and go on, find ways to create a new way of life for themselves.  It takes time to rebuild.  And sometimes in the re-creating, a simpler way of life is chosen.  Priorities are shifted.  New alliances form.  New families come together. 

As I age, I am coming to understand more and more each day, just how unimportant possessions really are.  Recently I bought a new camera because my not so old camera had been lost or stolen a couple of months ago.  I have felt bereft without a camera.  I love to take photos, and often do it quite well.  I got impatient and went to buy a camera the other day.   I had a little bit of extra money this month.  But of course by the time I bought the camera, I was over budget.  It didn't feel good.  And I chalked it up to simple reality.  Life is so often like that.

Last evening after "ghost practice", I came home to find a package from MD.  He had sent me a really lovely camera.  I opened the package and felt a deep sense of gratitude to him, and once again, noticed just how out of touch I sometimes am.  Out of touch or out of step.  Wow.  What generosity on his part.  What impatience on mine.  I suppose the next karmic test will stretch out my need even further, so I can suffer a bit more and learn to be patient in the face of my desires.

Anyway, the possessions just aren't the most important thing.  Love is.  Being present to this amazing thing called life IS.  True resilience I think could have waited for a new camera a bit longer. 

Maybe the store will take it back.