As we move toward the fall season, my walk across Central Park each morning enchants me even more, as I know that the beautiful green will soon be replaced by bare branches and the dun colors of winter.  What has caught my eye just about every morning is the maple tree I wrote about in spring – the one that looked as though it were dying and that has made what seems to me to be a miraculous recovery. Throughout the summer, the tree continued to put out leaves farther and farther up in its branches, until only a few of the top branches remained bare. 

For me, as I watched the tree become almost half bare in recent years, this recovery and renewal represent a constantly-present, but often-hidden, potential for resilience.  I’m inspired, again and again, by stories of people and animals – and now this maple tree – who have bounced back against unimaginable odds to live healthy and full lives. 

For this week’s experiment, I invite you to pay attention to stories – or your own experiences – that embody our inherent capacity to thrive in the presence of challenges.  I’ve written often about the constant choice points we have during any given day, and the choice points supported by this week’s experiment have to do with how we focus our attention.  There’s plenty to see that can become discouraging, and we run the risk of developing the habit of looking for what’s *not* going right.  Here, I invite you to pay particular attention to evidence that unexpected healing is possible, that resilience resides at the unseen depths of our being, and that an attitude of possibility supports the capacity to bounce back from seemingly overwhelming experience. 

The other element in thriving in the presence of challenges is to remember that bouncing back may take time – more time than you imagine – and that the choice to continue to focus on what’s working right, or what emerges as evidence of healing, supports the process.  Each week, I was amazed to see more leaves on what appeared to be dead branches of the maple tree, and the constant emergence of new leaves taught me not to make assumptions about what may be possible.  If anyone had told me that the tree would look almost normal by the end of this summer, I wouldn’t have believed them.  I needed to see the process with my own eyes.  Now, the tree has offered me a vivid demonstration of resilience in action and the healing gift of having enough time to bounce back.

As with all the experiments, this one is an invitation to be more consciously aware of the thoughts, feelings, and themes you support in your daily awareness.  What for me is constantly so powerful is the evidence I feel in my own life when I take the time to make choices about where I focus my attention.  This experiment offers that same reminder, and I invite you to notice the quality of your internal experience when you make the conscious choice to focus on healing potential, resilience, and the capacity to bounce back that resides at the core of each one of us.

Remember to bring along curiosity as your constant companion, and allow judgment to become nothing more than the next cloud floating through an open sky – nothing to push against … just something to notice and then let go.