Category: Resilience

Be Like Bamboo

6/2/2026

"Bamboo is flexible, bending like the wind but never breaking, capable of adapting in any circumstance. It suggests resilience, meaning that we have the ability to bounce back even from the most difficult times." -Ping Fu

Because the bamboo plant can survive harsh winters, blistering summers and fierce storms it is an important symbol of enlightenment in Buddhism. Like the bamboo, enlightenment requires persistence, strength, flexibility and adaptability. The presence of the bamboo also creates a sense of quiet and peace while providing shelter for human and other beings. . . .

Any time you face a major life obstacle, bring to mind the bamboo and its ability to adapt, adjust, survive and thrive. Do the same.
-Victor Parachin, Buddhist Wisdom for Beginners

An Important Life Lesson from Mother Earth

12/13/2025

Whenever you find it hard to keep going because the challenges are discouraging, think about our planet earth. Mother Earth experiences monsoons, tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, volcanoes. Each time any of those strikes, earth experiences destruction. And yet, the earth heals herself over time. Grass returns, flowers bloom, young trees grow. Mother Earth knows how to work in harmony with life's circumstances. Persistently and consistently she finds ways to self-heal.
-Victor M Parachin, Sit a Bit

Coming Back from Crisis and Loss

12/2/2025

Minister and psychologist Ann Kaiser Stearns has interviewed and studied survivors from all sorts of tragedies--people whose lives were shattered by disease, death, chronic pain, and being prisoners of war. In her book Coming Back: Rebuilding Lives after Crisis and Loss, she cites the following as attitudes crucial for overcoming adversity:

- I will not be defeated
- I will vividly examine the future
- I will take advantage of available opportunities
- I will not assume the victim posture
- I will accept life's challenges
- I can do it if I set my mind to it
- I have to be willing to expand
- I will find a way to get what I want
- I am consciously deciding to be in the company of good people

Study this list carefully. Make these your attitudes as you manage mourning. And when facing discouragement or even despair over your circumstances, keep in mind the truth that attitudes are more important than facts.
-Victor M Parachin, Healing Grief

Be Like Bamboo

An Important Life Lesson from Mother Earth

Coming Back from Crisis and Loss

Victor M. Parachin ... a

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