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New on the Resilience Blog
Start a Chain of Gratitude This Thanksgiving
 When the person in front of you on a plane reclines their seat to the max, there are a few ways you can respond.
You can accept it.
You can get angry about it.
You can politely ask the person to move their seat forward a bit.
I think a lot of us are a little afraid of that last option – fearful of an angry reaction, perhaps, or being seen as a complainer, or just “not wanting to get into it” (whatever “it” might mean).
Yet that’s just what I did on a recent flight between San Francisco and New York. The guy had pushed his seat back so far, so fast towards my 5’ 9” frame that my laptop wedged between my ribs and the seatback in front of me. Ouch! Instead of letting irritation take over, though, I tapped him on the shoulder and asked if he’d move forward – which he did, and nicely so.
It reminded me of how people are truly much kinder than we often assume…
Coming Together in a Time of Anger, Fear, and Grief
Witnessing the courage and fortitude of the French people following the recent terror attacks is heartbreaking and inspiring. It seems the entire world is in a precarious, delicate place - and civilized people everywhere are struggling to maintain equilibrium.
As we’ve noted before, difficult times and situations have the possibility of bringing us closer together and of fostering community. Connecting with others, particularly in times of crisis, is healing.
That’s just one of the reasons I was so taken with this recent poem by Oriah House, which speaks to recent events in the City of Light:
For Paris
Today, may we let ordinary things show us
How to make room for heartache and hope
Baking bread
Letting soup simmer all day
Paying attention to the taste of hot sweet tea
Letting the scent of cinnamon slow us down
Let’s make love to this day
In the way we linger and listen to each other
Finding a way to be still for three breaths
Letting our hands come to rest on the table
Sitting in the centre of Debussy’s “Claire de Lune”
Softening to the sadness
There is a way to be with anger and fear and grief
A way to hold them with so much tenderness
That terror cannot take root
Let us make a light of that tenderness
Leaning into each other, feeding each other
Creating together a heart that can hold it all
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