reVoice

Riva Capellari

[email protected]

Located in Brookside in the heart of Kansas City

My February Canvas

Resilience / Optimism

Resilience: 1) the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; 2) the ability to spring back, elasticity

Optimism: 1) attitude reflecting a belief or hope for a positive, successful or desirable outcome; a trait that fosters resilience

As we enter my second least favorite month of the year (January grabbing that prize), I am thankful this face off occurs early on. It engenders in me a greater appreciation for the following 10 months. This is why I choose resilience and optimism for February. Traits to me, that are two sides of the same coin. I think it is tough to have one without the other yelling support from the side lines.

Early on in the pandemic, I wrote about resilience and our need for (and lack of) it, faced with unexpected biological warfare for which there were no weapons. Having been tossed helter skelter, finding ones footing became elusive, haphazard landings catapulting us into unknown and unfriendly territory. Reflecting back on my words then, I take comfort and strength in the same thoughts. In order to build our stamina, cement in our resilience, we need to begin now to sow seeds that with “incremental, seemingly imperceptible movements” (me), take us forward in optimism riding on top of resilience. Bringing our full selves to stand up to “all the winds that blow in from the sea” (Camus).

Being optimistic is my catalyst for resiliency. With only even the slightest possibility of hope, I strive to remain on the upside of despair, plant myself determinedly and squarely outside the border of giving up, with the understanding that if I don’t stand my ground, it may cause an ever sprawling crack in the universe. So I am going to reiterate here quotes I found so healing and hopeful those many months ago.

“The past is set in daylight, and it can become a torch we can carry into the night that is the future”.

(Rebecca Solnit from Hope in the Dark)

“In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer”.(Camus)

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