We are more resilient than we think

It’s amazing how easily we adapt to change. Sometimes without even realising we have until something happens to make us see just how adaptable we really are.

Yesterday morning I was driving my car to work. A new car that we got under protest from me because I like being high up and this car is low to the ground almost – at least that’s what I thought when I first got in it.  We got this car because my husband said he is sick of driving around in a car that has no power or get up to it. He said he wanted a real car.

So when I first got into our car three weeks ago, I was terrified because I have not driven a car so low to the ground since we had our son 13 years ago when I had to give up my low to the ground convertible for a family mobile as I like to call them. Our son hated being in the backseat  of the convertible because I guess he felt like he was too closed in. Every time he got in his car seat he would scream. I remember it taking me nearly 2 hours to get home on a journey that normally takes 25 minutes one day because my son cried and screamed the whole way. And being the new mom that I was, I stopped every few feet to comfort him because I didn’t want him to feel rejected. I traded the car in shortly after that for one so he could be higher up and could see out. Smart decision because once he got in our new car,  he never cried again.

Fast forward 13 years later and I am back to driving a car lower down. Each day when I got into the car I prayed that I would not hit it or make a fool out of myself because I didn’t have the viewpoint I was used to having from my perch in the family cars.

Yesterday morning something really interesting happened while I was driving into work. I suddenly realised that I was not nervous. That I did not feel like I was sitting on the ground. That I actually liked the feel of the car when it accelerates with little to no effort. That I like the way it handles corners.

I felt for the first time that though my vantage point had changed, I was now seeing things I didn’t before because I was too high up to see them. And I enjoyed how I felt seeing those new things. Forcing me to smile because I realised that this simple act of driving my car after about three weeks and feeling comfortable driving was a message from the Universe. Reminding me of just how adaptable I am. How adaptable we all are. And even more so reminding me when we let go of the expectations or preconceived notions about how things are meant to be, we discover that the change was not that bad at all. In fact we discover it was necessary to help us see things from a different vantage point. Offering us the opportunity to grow in ways we did not expect.

Reminding me I am more resilient than I think and so are you.