Resilience (n.) The ability to absorb energy from disruption
Yesterday was a long day of medical tests for our little man as he dutifully sat through hours of appointments with three different docs. The day ended the way it always does…. with him having to give up more than his fair share of blood- and as usual, it took four adults to forcefully hold him down
Willful is a perfect word to describe our boy, and not just when he is trying to avoid having a swab rammed down his throat or a needle poked into his arm. He has always walked through life as his own little force of nature. It has not made him an easy child to raise, but it has made him land on his feet in every circumstance he faces. The same cannot always be said for those around him…Yesterday as we drove away from one of the best children’s hospitals in the country my hubby and I looked like we had gone 9 rounds with Mike Tyson, and I am quite sure the poor medical technicians that had spent the afternoon begging, pleading, cajoling, and eventually wrestling the 60 pound creature we call our son, all went home and had a martini or three.
Ajay in contrast, walked out of there like a boss. With the smugness of a prisoner who had done his time, he hopped into the back seat of the car and demanded that we ‘get gone’. As far as he was concerned, his long afternoon of unpleasantness was behind him and he needed to get moving toward his next outing in the world. If someone was eavesdropping into our car, they might honestly think we had just picked him up from some great birthday party he had just been at… after all of the struggle was over he morphed into a happy relaxed guy- just like that!
Within a short drive from the hospital is a beautiful beach. As soon as it came into view we pulled over to take in the stunning view. (In hindsight I have to ask myself, ‘ When will we learn?’) Ajay, unlike his dinosaur Mom and Dad, is not a ‘take in the view’ kinda guy. Before the car was even in park, his seat belt was off and he was in a full sprint…… down the embankment and onto the beach. We weren’t too reactive when he took off toward the water because his fear of sharks is even greater than his dislike of needles, so as expected he was not on a mission to swim- he just wanted to run. He had endured a day of being held down and he needed to make up for it with some abject freedom.
The dictionary defines resilience as the ability to absorb energy from disruption…. Watching our boy sprint into the sunset after his day of upset says the exact same thing…
…And that resilience we see in him, it must be contagious. Watching our son struggle with an illness we can’t fix has altered our world in ways we could never have predicted. But from that struggle there has emerged a strength in our little family that is unlike anything we have known before this… And yes, I think the correct name for it would be resilience- the ability to absorb energy from disruption.
Yesterday, Bri and I may have been too tired to sprint down the beach with Ajay….but resilience was sitting right there with us… as we quietly held hands and watched our boy run….