Hi Everyone,
I ran across an article on resilience and ageing, and it reminded me of many things I learned as a child and young adult from my parents.
Resilience is defined as "the process of effectively adapting in the face of adversity, trauma, or significant stress."
As we age, we are almost constantly facing significant stress from physical limitations, loss of mental acuity, painful joints, hearing and eyesight problems etc. We have suffered from the loss of friends, family and loved ones. Then layered on top of all of that, too many senior women are also facing the challenges associated with unstable and unaffordable housing.
In the article, the author expressed surprise at the fact that seniors often outpace younger people when it comes to being resilient.
Why would this be a surprise? We have experienced decades of stressful events, and we have learned from them. Out of necessity, we have essentially become experts at being resilient.
Senior Women Living Together is an expression and example of resilience. We decide to embrace the concept and reality of living together with other senior women as a way to turn the negative housing prospects we face into an opportunity to increase our quality of life. We don't just survive, we thrive!
I was fortunate to have parents that started teaching me about resilience when I was young. My father often reminded me to "always hope for the best but plan for the worst". My mother used to say, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade."
I can't count the number of times in my life when these early lessons helped me through difficult, sometimes tragic events.
~Pat Dunn~ | 
