Resilience during a pandemic

What we are modelling for our children through this pandemic is how well to cope with pay cuts, job losses, loss of loved ones and a darkening economic landscape. But through it all there is a belief, a hope, a will that resides in us that we can overcome the most challenging of times.

This is what keeps humanity alive. Yes, we need money, a job and food on the table. We always despair when life as we knew it is taken away from us.

Are we entitled? Do we live as if we were?

Every morning I wake up and thank God for the life He gives me. I thank Him for the life and health of my loved ones, friends and family. I realise every single day that because I am alive, I can get to do all the things that I need to do. I am humbled that God allows me to live and thrive in a pandemic where so many are struggling to breathe. I am fortunate with what I have- whatever it might be and if I am faced with challenges, I teach my children to cope.

Now coping can be done with sadness and despair, or cheer and positivity. I was always around a mother whose sunshine smile will be the way I will remember her. Through trying and difficult times in our lives, her smile warmed our household. I knew that times were difficult now and then, but the way she coped has taught me that it is important to bear our difficulties and situations with a smile. We need to do that for ourselves and our children.

We are modelling great lessons in resilience during this pandemic and if we get it right, our children would have learned a great life lesson of how to cope cheerfully in the face of adversity.

I look down and see people with even less than I do surviving because of the resilience of their spirit and I want us to give that to our children. Nothing has meaning without life. If we are grateful for that, then there arises the possibility of working our way out of our situation. While we take those decisions, let us stay even tempered and cheerful. That is how our children will remember us- smiling in the face of adversity.

There is always a solution. It will come to us if we look for it. It might not be the one that you want but it may be the one you need. Resilience is the ability to rise again after we are flattened and stand tall. For that we should be flexible in our expectations and attitudes like a blade of grass.

The storm will pass. Life will change. If we live by the grace of God we will see better and greater things. How we live and teach our children to live during challenging times is a lesson only parents can impart and it is something a child learns for life. You are a teacher. You are teaching your children attitudes and values in all that you do and say. Let those actions and words be the wisest, the most positive and the most cheerful.

I believe that there is a brighter and better future awaiting us. We need to wait for it with patience and positivity.

Stay safe and may God guide all of our lives.

By Asha Alexander

Asha Alexander is an educator with 34 years’ experience and presently the Principal and CEO of the GEMS Legacy School and Executive Leader of Climate Change at GEMS Education. An avid thinker, writer and climate change activist, she is also a mother to her twin children and their spouses. Asha is a change management leader, having effectively transitioned her present school GEMS Legacy School to a digital curriculum in 2011.