Sometimes I ponder what it takes for a person to be resilient--to sustain resiliency.  My personality often does not yield itself to being resilient.  I need more solitude and sleep than the average person.  I require swaths of time to regroup after social interactions.  Small talk drains me almost like nothing else.  I could spend the whole weekend at home in my study, happy as a lark.  Silence rejuvenates me.  I bask in staying under the radar.  Hidden.  Yet this week I've grappled with my longing to be read--to be published.  Such paradox.  I believe my yearning was stirred when I received a rejection email from a literary journal in which I'd hoped my writing style would fit.  I can be like a child playing "hide and seek."  I'd like to be discovered, if only briefly.

My personaility, though, serves me well in other areas.  I can be quite intuitive, picking up on moods of others--noticing non-verbal cues.  Reading faces.  I am an astute observer, noting fine details.  I am an empathic listener.  Curious.  I realize these characteristics probably make me a better writer.   And so it goes.  It is helpful for me to embrace all the aspects of who I am.  Hide and Seek.  Black and White.  Light and Dark. 

Perhaps one aspect of creating resilience for living is embracing all of who we are.  Surely God feels this way about us.  He created such a diverse and gorgeous array of personalities.  Like oragami--fold after fold of intricate designs. 

Then another email.  "We are pleased to announce that your short story has been accepted into our anthology for literary fiction.  Congratulations."  The same piece rejected by one publication and accepted by another. 

I sense that God is highly interested in our ability to see ourselves as He does.  This vision, in and of itself, creates resiliency for moving forward in life.  This week I read in Psalm 139: 1-6 (The Passion Translation)

Lord, you know everything there is to know about me.

You perceive every movement of my heart and soul, and you understand my every thought before it even enters my mind.

You are so intimately aware of me, Lord.

You read my heart like an open book and you know all the words I'm about to speak before I even start a sentence!

You know every step I will take before my journey even begins.

You've gone into my future to prepare the way, and in kindness you follow behind me to spare me from the harm of my past.

With your hand of love upon my life, you impart a blessing to me.  

This is just too wonderful, deep, and incomprehensible!

Your understnading of me brings me wonder and strength.