Building Resilience

I’ve mentioned to you before how this pandemic has required that Kaye and I learn so many new skills that previously weren’t part of our job.  Zoom and worship recording and editing and epidemiology and so much more.

Now that we are in mid-to-late pandemic, in 2021 I will be working on learning a whole other set of skills that weren’t previously part of my job.  Remember that we’re in a riptide — it is impossible for us to simply go back to the way things used to be.  We–our world, the church, all of it–has been forever changed by the events of 2020. 

One resource I have found very helpful is Building Resilience: When There’s No Going Back to the Way Things Were by Alice Updike Scannell.  She was a priest and gerontologist and studied what skills helped people thrive again after trauma, great loss and other life-changing situations.  Her easy-to-read book explains the factors that support radical resilience: Mindfulness, Courage, Perseverance, Flexibility, Reframing, Creativity, Realistic Optimism, Hope, Physical Activity and Spirituality.  Her small book also includes rich resources for further study.  

2020 was a rough year, and so far 2021 isn’t going easy on us.  If you’d like to learn more about resilience, consider adding this book to your nightstand.