Bouncing Back

Life is not about how fast you run or how high you climb, but how well you bounce.

Winnie-the- Pooh, A.A. Milne

It’s been a rough start to the year. Making it worse, the snow and frigid temperatures seeming to go on endlessly. Spring appears to be a myth made up by hopeless optimists.

That is until I discovered The Orchid Show at the Botanic Gardens last week. I was walking down a glass-enclosed hallway and looking out at the frigid landscape. Inside, surrounded by a breathtaking variety of elegant, delicate orchids. Punctuated by green foliage and tropical fruit trees, it was an unforeseen paradise.

The Oxford Dictionary defines bounce back as, to be healthy, successful or confident again after being ill or having difficulties. After looking at several definitions, I like this one the best. It doesn’t say you have to be joyous or smiling from ear to ear. It says you are confident. Assured that you will overcome whatever adversity you are facing. You could walk into an average passage on an ordinary weekday afternoon. Unexpectedly, finding yourself in a tropical garden.

Sometimes, we are thrown off course by something we didn’t see coming. We can stay knocked down or pick ourselves and bounce back into what life has waiting for us. Maybe, it’s a garden of orchids. Whatever it is. It’s better than being stuck in sorrow and despair.