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AdversityWhat if adversity itself was the lesson?

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Have you ever been exposed to adversity as explained by the below etymology(s)?

How did you react?

What did you learn… about yourself? Did you learn anything? Did you play the blaming game?

If you are a person of faith how was your faith tested? Or proved more evident?

How did you grow from the experience? Did you grow or did you shrink back further into your mental turtle shell?

 

People in the social work field and others, use the phrase, “You have erected a wall to hide behind”, but a wall implies you have room or a safe space to move around in behind it.

I like the turtle shell analogy more, because… if you think about it… that is exactly what we do.

We shrivel, shrink, withdraw further, and retreat deep within ourselves when we face a hurt, a setback, a previous trauma brought back up, or an outright failure in life.

After reading this look at my article titled ‘Cope’. Are you coping or nope-ing?

I know I have to… start engaging my setbacks, come into close proximity to them and grab them by the scruff of the neck like you would to a misbehaving canine… yep, I might get bitten, most likely will, but I’m not going to turn into a werewolf or anything.

Plus if I prepare a little bit (like wearing my professional animal handling, leather with kevlar lining, heavy gloves) I’ll be more confident when I step in there.

Take a look at your life… are you in charge of it? Have you seized the day, like with that dog?

Or are we just drifting by in our dinghy, The H.M.S Duh – Nile?

adversity (n.) 

c. 1200, aduersite “condition of misfortune, hardship, difficulty, distress,” from Old French adversite, aversite (Modern French aversité) “adversity, calamity, misfortune; hostility, wickedness, malice” (Modern French adversité), from Latin adversitatem (nominative adversitas) “opposition,” from adversus “turned against, hostile”
(see adverse).adverse (adj.)

late 14c., “contrary, opposing,” from Old French advers, earlier avers (13c., Modern French adverse) “antagonistic, unfriendly, contrary, foreign” (as in gent avers “infidel race”), from Latin adversus“turned against, turned toward, fronting, facing,” figuratively “hostile, adverse, unfavorable,” past participle of advertere “to turn toward,” from ad “to” (see ad-) + vertere “to turn, turn back; be turned; convert, transform, translate; be changed” (from PIE root *wer- (2) “to turn, bend”). For distinction of use, see averse. Related: Adversely.

averse (adj.)

mid-15c., “turned away in mind or feeling, disliking, unwilling,” from Old French avers “hostile, antagonistic” and directly from Latin aversus “turned away, turned back,” past participle of avertere“to turn away,” from ab “off, away from” (see ab-) + vertere “to turn” (see versus). Originally and usually in English in the mental sense, while averted is used in a physical sense.

Averse applies to feeling, adverse to action: as, I was very averse to his going: an adverse vote: adverse fortune. [Century Dictionary, 1906]

versus (prep.)

mid-15c., in legal case names, denoting action of one party against another, from Latin versus “turned toward or against,” past participle of vertere “to turn,” from PIE *wert- “to turn, wind,” from root *wer- (2) “to turn, bend.”
~ online word etymology.com
Focus
Cope

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