Tag Archives: wellbeing

2023 – The Year of Resilience

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In a country, many centuries ago, 3 teenage boys were sentenced to be thrown into a fiery furnace due to the fact that they made a decision to not compromise their beliefs and doing what was right. The country in question was a superpower of its region and ruled by a feared dictator who had very sadistic tendencies. In spite of the proverbial ‘poo hitting the fan’ for these lads, they had something about them that enabled them to endure and as a result they were released unscathed.

If there is one thing that I will leave 2023 thinking about, it’s the fact that I had to smile when I reviewed my entries for the end of 2022 and 2021. I decided not to look back at my entry for 2020, because, well, you know…

I was going to start this blog post with the usual line of how difficult this year was etc but instead I am extremely thankful.

What’s that you say? Thankful? (Is she actually ok?)

Yep, I am actually thankful in a very weird way. I have felt over the recent years that I may have missed a very important jig-saw piece to life. I would typically reach the end of a year, hopeful that the following year would be better than the last, that my luck would change, that there might be a degree of reprieve to the many ‘poos hitting the fan’ moments. But with this mindset came the disappointment – disappointed that the cares and issues of life would hit, one after the other, feeling as though I’m constantly in ‘survival mode’, existing more than living.

So it is with great pleasure that I leave 2023 learning that whilst I cannot escape these problems, I can bolt on an additional mechanism to assist with how I deal with them. I thought I’d “smashed” it with having those quiet times in prayer, meditating on God’s Word, setting key boundaries and limiting what I could physically deal with. But this year has taught me that as well as what I’m currently doing I have realised that it has enabled me to recognise and develop resilience.

Now you’re probably thinking “Well, you have been doing this throughout all these years” and in some respects you are absolutely right. I guess the difference with this year has been the fact that I chose not to recognise it as an after effect but to be more assertive in facing challenges with the tools – or some might say weapons – at my disposal.

For me, ‘Resilience’ was my ability this year to face a challenge with the knowledge that I will eventually come through it. The challenges were tough, brought me to my knees (work, just….work), even traumatic (watching Mum in October fight for life in A&E after another heart attack). Through God’s grace I dealt with each situation knowing that I had a Saviour who understood – who would plant ideas/solutions into my head which then worked. Who flooded me with a sense of encouragement during the particularly challenging moments. Who influenced and changed the timelines of projects to enable me to deal with the emergency with Mum.

Image by Bruce from Pixabay

Recalling all the other occasions when I managed to get through trials helped, along with maintaining healthy boundaries at work and basically making significant use of saying “No” when to say “Yes” would have been so much easier and less confrontational. It helped a lot and for that I am thankful.

From my last post entry I had invested more time in my hobbies this year as a pressure release from all the drama. I’d even begun looking over the book that I have been writing.

So, today my mind recalled the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, 3 Jewish teenagers taken into captivity approximately 300 or so BCE. I can imagine these kids having experienced quite a significant level of trauma, rotten days, where the proverbial “poo hit the fan” for them. Yet the account of them refusing to obey a king who demanded that they forfeit the very thing that helped them cope with life by kneeling and worshipping a statue, being thrown into a fiery furnace as punishment, and then subsequently surviving against such impossible odds, spoke to me of how – over time – they developed such an enviable resilience to make it through to another day. What they had is what we’ve all got at our disposal too.

How amazing is that?

So today, I celebrate being a child of the Most High God who never said life will be a bed of roses but who did promise that He is with us every step of the way.

This has equipped me to recognise and look forward to 2024 and all that it will bring.

Hope in the Storms

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As I write this blog, the sun is shining and considering it’s the end of December, I took a quick stroll in the garden and it was pleasantly warm. I have been blessed with having a whole week off from work without using any annual leave. Yes, you heard that right (still pinching myself). The employer closed its doors to all employees for the whole of the Christmas break and after being a teacher and working for the NHS, I had to ask three times just to make sure. I mean, I’ve hardly had time off during the Christmas break unless it was a couple of days annual leave and don’t even get me started with those teacher years when guilt use to make me mark mock exam papers for years 10 and 11!

This period of recharge has enabled me to gain a decent sleep pattern and actually cook fresh food, to spend time with the kids, to lose badly in Mario Cart. Our resident kitty did a double take that the stranger who grumbles whilst in yoga pants and a thick hooded fleece as they rush back into a Teams call, actually tickled the old geezer behind the ears and rubbed his freely offered tummy. I’m sure he’ll have a meltdown next week.

As I reflect on 2022 with this blog post I’ll admit that it has thus far been one of the more challenging years – from the health related emergencies linked to my mum and myself at the beginning of the year, the cost of living crisis and its impact on my net income, a very challenging change to a new job role. All of them seemingly coming one after another, one could be forgiven into thinking that this is never ending. In some respects, when facing challenges we tend not to have an opportunity to get all philosophical about it and it is always when we reached the other side of ‘drama’ that we can view the lesson learnt. This is perhaps where I am as 2022 draws to a close.

Image by Joe from Pixabay

If there is one main thing that has been cemented this year and the past few years, well, actually life – lets say life – it is where I place my hope. Like a student sometimes I have to go over a task an innumerate amount of times before I fully apply and understand a concept. It just so happens that the Lord – being the Rabboni or teacher that He is – has been patiently teaching me to put my hope in Him. Not in job satisfaction, not in family members or friends or people, not even in chocolate and Prosecco. But in Him. And the brilliant thing I was reminded of this year is that He is just a call away, as in just calling on His Name when the proverbial organic waste hits the fan.

One wise bit of advice that I offer you – don’t be like me! Don’t swim in the muck of life and then think “Oh Yeah! I can call on the Lord”. Be more like my kids. When trouble hits them, I hear them quietly praying to Him who provides. Maybe I’m old in the tooth and old habits die hard (the meme of Elmo raising his hands surrounded by fire reminds me of the point that I usually call on His Name), but I have learnt this year to not wait until I feel chest pains and heart palpitations before I call out to Him but to literally offload while stuff is happening.

What I have found this year, has been that immediate answer to prayer, a peace, a Shalom, a wholeness which envelopes your very core and smothers out those flames of fear and anxiety. It’s taken yet another year but I feel so much peace as we enter into 2023 knowing that although it is going to be a tougher year, I know that I will still stand.

As I began to write this blog post, I wonder on what Bible verse would come to mind as I reflected on the highs and lows of the past year and it was Psalm 42, verse 11 which states:

Why my soul are you downcast. Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Saviour and my God.

Psalm 42:11 (NIV)

May those who read this post have a blessed New Year, may you be filled with the Lord’s peace which surpasses all understanding and may you be filled with His hope to endure whatever gets thrown at you.

P.S. ….don’t be an Elmo meme