Resiliency Insight: A Scavenger Hunt

The doorbell rang on Saturday afternoon. Five girls, ages nine to ten, clamored around my door, waving sheets of paper and talking all at once. "Wait,"I laughed. "One person at a time." "We're on a birthday party scavenger hunt," squealed the smallest one who also seemed to command more authority than her size projected. (As the runt of the litter in my family, I loved it!) "What do you need?" I asked. Turned out they all were on the same team. The smallest girl held the master list of what items remained. "Spool of thread."  Check:  I found an orange spool from some long forgotten Halloween costume. "A bar of hotel soap." Nope. We used it all up. "A packet of seed."  Check. My husband raced to the garage and came back with herbs as seeds. "A balloon."  Nope. Now that the kids are older, I just didn't have that in the toy box any more. "A grocery store receipt." Check.  I told the girls they would love me because few people keep grocery receipts. Two "nopes" and three "checks".  Not bad. The girls raced off for the missing balloon and the hotel soap. Late that night, I thought about the scavenger hunt and resiliency. There are parallels. When life hands us "something" to deal with, the most adaptable among us look for many answers.  It requires a willingness to ask for help.  Sometimes, we must ask strangers. When one request doesn't work, move on. "Next" becomes a mantra. Lastly, don't go alone if you can help it.  Find people who care about you, who have possibly been in that situation, and who also have a sense of positive expectancy. A scavenger is one who removes garbage from the street. In like manner, the scavenger hunt as I described above is to seek help getting rid of what might feel like garbage in your life. If you're in this place, start ringing some door bells.