Adversity

"Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant."
~Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), Satires

I look back on the challenges in my life ... and I'm grateful. Each and every adversity has molded my personality, made me stronger and more empathetic to those around me.

It's hard to be grateful for adversity when you are in the thick of it. But when the crisis has passed ... one can almost always look back and find something that they have gained by enduring the unthinkable.

I have family and friends that are facing their own adversities right now. The crisis may have passed, but they are still living each day as it comes. There is much healing required.

There is a quote that comes to mind when life happens like this. Simple words said by a strong but mighty soul that I worked with once upon a time. She had faced one personal crisis after the next. Then her dad died. She stood tall and was trying to be brave and she uttered the words, "I know that God only gives us what we can handle .... but I just wish that He didn't think that I was so strong!"

The sun keeps rising on each new day. I hope that those facing the storms of life right now will soon be able to look back at this time and find a talent, a gift, an appreciation or a blessing that would have remained dormant had they not been faced with adversity ...