Wisdom is earned through adversity. It can’t be bought. It must be earned.
Character is formed by overcoming the obstacles and adversity life throws our way.
Obstacles force us to grow, to shift, to evolve and to use our innate gifts and creativity to navigate around them.
Removing obstacles removes the opportunity for growth. Removing obstacles takes away our ability to learn the lessons for ourselves.
Too much comfort keeps us stuck in our comfort zone. A little discomfort, a tiny grain of sand, is the necessary impetus we need to push ourselves to transform our lives into a new way of being.
Change happens outside the comfort zone. Nothing changes until we change.

I have no idea where this came from.  When I find words that I love, whether a quote or a paragraph from a book or an article, I will squirrel them away to enjoy or to use in a blog post later.  I always add an attribution to them so I know and can share where they came from.  Unfortunately, wherever I found this, there must not have been a source noted. 

Wherever it came from, it resonated so strongly with what we’re going through now that I had to share it, with a few thoughts. 

In a conversation yesterday morning with a dear friend, she said something to the effect that perhaps this crazy, worldwide coronavirus pandemic that is sending shockwaves and panic and disbelief throughout the whole world has also brought us a gift. 

The gift she was talking about was time. Time to slow down and just be.  To stop rushing through life, to stop overscheduling ourselves and our kids, to stop passing up some of the simple moments of our lives. I love that . . . and I agree.  Especially because it’s affecting the whole world.  The optimist in me wants to believe – no, I choose to believe – that we will collectively come out better, stronger, and hopefully with a renewed sense of ourselves and a more peace-filled, loving approach to life going forward. 

Of course, we’re on day 3 of the required isolation for those of us of a certain age, so ask me again at week 3 and see if I’m still feeling this way.  (wink and a prayer)

It’s most important to stay connected. More online or phone conversations with the ones we love will help ease this isolation, for sure.  And at least for now, I’ll use the rest of the time to ponder the beautiful words above and believe that, to quote Robert Browning, “. . . the best is yet to be.”

I hope you’re all staying put and staying well.

Till next time,

Judy