The Parachute

So many lives have been sent into utter turmoil in the last two years. Whether the result of COVID, lost loved ones, lost jobs, pay cuts or the Taliban taking over the city. Most people I talk to have experienced loss or trauma of some sort. What is evident in every story, even the most traumatic ones, is just how incredibly profound human resilience is. People grieve, yet keep moving forward. People lose it all and start again. People get lost and find meaning in the search. 

The sadness for me is that the strength and resilience are often forgotten, and the fear for life and what it may throw one’s way returns. 

Consider this analogy: 

Life has at times pushed you into a rickety aeroplane that didn’t seem as though it could make a flight. It took you on a bumpy, uncertain ride up into the clouds, and then when it was high enough above the clouds that you couldn’t see the ground below, life opened the door and pushed you out. You tumbled through the open sky, clouds rushing past you and the air pummelling you with each inch you fell. You watched as the ground became closer and closer. Feeling completely out of control, you were in those fear-filled moments convinced that you wouldn’t make it, that you couldn’t do it. And just then… the parachute opened. Life then laughed and said, “Of course I would never have left you just to hit the ground; I was simply reminding you of how much you can bear, how strong you are, and that in the end, it will always be ok”.

The problem is, you land safely on the ground, and you forget what you survived, you forget just how strong and capable you were, and you forget that life always covers your back.

In times of grief, loss, uncertainty, or fear… the parachute always opens. 

We all know this one level or another, but we forget, and we get swept up into the collective fear and chaos once more. We let anxiety lead us, and we forget that the parachute (be it God, the Universe, resilience, inner strength or our higher self) has opened every other time we were sent free-falling through the endless open sky.

Resilience is a muscle; the more we use it, the stronger it gets. More importantly, the more we remember our strength and resilience, the quicker we can access it when we need it.

And herein lies the importance and value of reflection

When we take the time to reflect and consider what we have been through intentionally, we remember our strength and how capable we truly are. When we know we have overcome difficulties before, we know that we can overcome them again. The more we operate from a place of faith in ourselves, our strength, our Universe, our God, our parachute, the less room we have to accommodate fear. 

Let’s take the time to reflect, we’ve got this, and it’s going to be ok.