Endurance

In my twenties and thirties I was a distance runner and always associated endurance with my running and competition. I studied it based upon the foods I ate, sleep patterns and resting heart rate.  Constantly trying to figure out what contributed to greater or less endurance on my long runs.

Now that I’m nearly 50, I see endurance much differently than I did when my perspective was limited to athletic performance–“the ability or strength to continue despite fatigue, stress, or other adverse conditions; stamina.”  That’s how the online dictionary defines endurance and it resonates with the way I’m sensing it now.

Each of us are challenged to learn the lesson of endurance throughout our lives.  I see this in the faces of the individuals we serve each day.  The mom who finally makes the connection between how she was raised and a better way to raise her own children; the addict who finds a greater purpose and value to their life than the next high; and the family who re-engages with their wayward teenager and finds loving common ground—they all grow in endurance as they bear the pain, hardship and suffering that positive change often requires.

Endurance is the culmination of life experiences that give us grit and the ability to endure a difficult career change, a relationship low, losses of loved ones and rapid change.  The great thing about endurance is that it is the pathway to an amazing, beautiful and thriving life.

Here’s wishing you the gift of endurance and a life well lived.