Last week, there were no daffodils beginning to grow and no cyclamen flower blooming. I knew they were there … but they had been covered with snow. A lot of snow!

The snow was on the streets, in driveways, in gardens, in parking lots. Over a foot of the white stuff covered the flower beds and I anticipated that the snow had severely injured the plants growing underneath.

But then because of the constant rain, much of the snow has melted and underneath … a little miracle if you will! The plants under the snow had all faced the adversity of a winter storm and yet had survived … the winter cyclamen had blossomed and the daffodils to the left of the cyclamen have begun their journey through the dirt to become a flower.

It is said that “Tenacity is strength in adversity.” When we “hold on” in adversity, whatever the situation, be that Nature’s fury, personal health issues, politics or whatever, we are being tenacious.
And tenacity is strength! I like that thought.

Consider these people: Greta Thunberg … Joan of Arc … Rosa Parks … Martin Luther King Jr. … to name just a few.

Consider the people you know: family and friends who have weathered personal storms, Nature’s storms, stormy consequences of political decisions …

Each of us, at one time or another, has “weathered a storm” and demonstrated ‘tenacity in adversity.’ If you doubt that, take a moment and think of a time when you were faced with a situation that was contentious, frightening, anxiety-producing … aka “adversity.”

Then take a moment to reflect on how you got through that time/that moment/that experience – how you’re getting through it now.

Each of those moments was an example of your resilience … your tenacity. You “got through,” in some way. Strength!

My late husband, shortly before dying, whispered “You are stronger than you think you are.” At that moment, and in the moments, days and weeks and months which followed, I didn’t “feel” strong. But he was right. I “got through”: tenacity. Tenacity is strength.

May we each remember and not lose sight of that when adversity enters our lives again. We are stronger than we think we are.

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© June Maffin
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