B.C. on Your Life's Journey

I was blessed to have been in the middle of my own family reunion last summer.

Maybe you've never thought of it this way, but a family reunion is a time when a family can declare a holiday whenever and wherever it's convenient for all family members to convene. Good food, good company and good times!

My family reunion had a bonus at the end. The very next day when my youngest son and his wife and their two little ones would be leaving, my son had suggested that we spend a little more time together - and so we did! We met at a coffee shop where the coffee was superb, and the scones even more so ( yes, they were that good!). Next stop was a park (held out as a bright, shiny object for my little granddaughter to look forward to). It was a couple blocks from my house so I dropped off my car and hoofed it over to said park.

My daughter-in-law selflessly sacrificed by keeping the little ones occupied so that my son and I could visit; I mean really visit. In the midst of our deep conversation I heard myself catching him up-to-date on calamities that had befallen me over the course of the years.

"Mom," he said, "don't you know that those are the things that build character?" What? My son was giving me a lump-of-gold bit of advice that I'd long forgotten. Years ago we had belonged to a church that had instilled the notion of building character whenever something went horribly wrong. It seems I left that bit of wisdom behind when we'd moved on.

But, do you know what? My son was right. One can build character (B.C.) when good things go bad. Could we as a country all use a dose of character about now? Think of those examples of discipline and character that are associated with household names such as Mother Theresa, or even Mr. Rogers who taught children lessons of character in a very appealing way in his neighborhood. Those two may be gone now, but their reputations live on.

So think about this. The last time something went wrong for you, did you think of it in terms of making you stronger? Many times less than ideal circumstances can. As the old adage goes:

"That which does not kill us makes us stronger." - Friedrich Nietzsche

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