About Resilience

A few of my resilient blackberries.

We gardeners have a saying: The first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap.

Last year I planted blackberry bushes. This is supposed to be the “creep” year when they yield a little more fruit than last year, but nothing compared to next year.

A few weeks ago a violent storm caused a huge maple tree to fall. With pinpoint accuracy it landed on top of my blackberry bushes. There went my creep year. Or so I thought.

What I didn’t know is blackberry bushes are resilient. Ours remained smushed until we had time to clear the tree. Some of the branches that had been pinned to the ground rooted. More blackberry bushes! Then beautiful pinkie-purple blooms appeared. And today clusters of green berries are slowly ripening in the Middle Tennessee heat.

I do a lot of thinking while working in the garden. Lately, I’ve been thinking about all that we have collectively been through since the pandemic began. While everyone’s story is different, there is a camaraderie that comes from realizing we are showing up with a resilience we didn’t know we had. Granted, it would be great if this level of resilience weren’t necessary, but here we are.

Have I been my best self every day? Of course not. Maybe you can relate. And that’s ok. The important thing is, we keep showing up. We show up for our families. We show up for our employers. For our clients. For our places of worship. We show up at the grocery store when we smile at the bone-tired person working the cash register, even when that smile isn’t returned.

I am hopeful we will soon be at the point when the pandemic and all its awfulness is in the rear-view mirror. Some will still be grieving loved ones who died of COVID-19. Some may need to continue processing resentment from having lost businesses or from being laid off. Children will need to relearn how to attend in-person school.

Regardless of what comes next, I want to keep showing up. How about you?