Fighting Floods and Fires with Adaptability and Resilience

The only way to deal with our natural disasters here in Colorado and all over the country is with adaptability and resilience.  Earlier this summer we lost 500 homes to raging wild fires.  About the same amount was destroyed in the Waldo Canyon fires the year before; so many lives were disrupted.  Now we are counting thosands of homes either destroyed or damaged by flood waters.   Watching the  news cover the damage for hours, the destruction brought a layer of sadness to my day. 

I felt lucky to be one of the unscathed homeowners here in the state.  Looking around my backyard, I could see little of the damage that all those inches of rain had wreaked on our country side.  One of  the outside plants seemed to have thrived from the experience.  It survived a week of rain and hail the size of peas.  The red flowered geranium was thriving and strong while the other plants looked a bit weary from the wear. 

 Being an avid gardener and lover of  plants, I created  the survivor from the limbs harvested from a geranium plant that  that had grown too big for its pot.  It arrived on my doorstep six years ago as a thank you gift for spending four days in sunny Ocean Beach, California, catering to five teenagers and their hormones.  Other than a few pictures and a random memory of the route to Walmart, it is all I have left of the trip that was pleasant.  The adventure did leave me swearing to never, ever again, take that many people entering puberty along with me traveling. 

The original plant was transplanted into a fancy pot and placed on a throne in front of the walk out basement sliding glass doors where it gets loads of sunshine yet none of the elements.  There, it swelters in the heat and grows large leaves the size of a adult hands.  It doesn’t get any of the wind or the weather that its offspring gets on the upper deck of the house.  So why, you might ask, are you telling me all of this?   Well it has to do with adaptabiliity and resilience. 

The plant on the porch has learned to grow and adapt to the elements; it adapted to a seven days of rain.  Its leaves are small and thick, growing close to the stem so it can withstand the rampant winds it encounters.  It is vastly different from its parent that sprouts large, lazy, non-tormented leaves.  The indoor plant has none of the challenges that it’s outside counterpart has. The fact that the plant outside has persevered through the elements to stay strong and survive, is nothing short of a miracle to me.  It was fashioned by sticking a few broken limb into a  pot of dirt.  No coddling, no mess, no trouble. 

That’s the way I like my life now.  I want to adapt to every situation that I find myself in.  It is about finding strength to be resilient no matter what challenges the universe sends our way.   It’s not about just surviving anymore and calling foul when something goes bad.  Dump the pity party and the woe is me crap.  Take the deal that comes your way and make it better. Stop lamenting and get to work.  Be adaptable and be resilient.  It is the only way to go.

Please send prayers to all those who have lost their homes and loved ones.