Resilience

I had a professor in college that talked alot about resilience and how it was her favorite word. By the end of the semester, it became my favorite word as well. I love the definition even more:
"the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness"
"ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like"

I didn't realize it at the time but I am resilient. This is true because of the devastating things I have been through in my life such as the still birth of my baby and the suicide of my ex-husband. Also, I have struggled with and been paralyzed by addictions, depression, social anxiety, and low self-esteem. Yet here I am. Rising from the ashes and doing better than I have in my entire life. Here's some inspirational quotes about resiliency:

Dieter F. Uchtdorf
“It’s your reaction to adversity, not adversity itself that determines how your life’s story will develop.”

Gever Tulley
“Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems.”

Mary Oliver
“Someone I once loved gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift".

And my very favorite of them all:
Still I Rise

Maya Angelou, 1928 - 2014

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines Diggin' in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise
I rise
I rise.