Resilience An Act of Love
i’ve been an educator for around
10 years and worked across
different age groups all the way from
three years old to first-time teachers
to seasoned government educators who are
still working very hard
to make a difference even at age 60.
i’m sure um you’re done with teachers
and educators giving you sermons on zone
so i’m not i’m not going to do that
today
but i do want to share a little bit
about my greatest teacher
um a few years ago
i met um my teacher
her name is bambi yeah
so that’s bambi
um she was a seven month old girl
who was thrown away abused and
very ill a lady walking across
in her colony was kind enough to stop
and notice her hiding under a car
in the rain and after
weeks of trying to get bambi adopted uh
the people caring for her really
struggled to find someone who wanted her
somehow nobody one seemed to have want
to have anything to do with an indian
girl
too dark to be considered beautiful and
too
sick and wounded to be responsible for
i knew that i
that it would be a difficult challenge
for her but i
really don’t know what made me take her
in
i got a phone call about bambi and it
was a decision i took in
all of a minute knowing that i would
have a lot
of convincing to do at home
but something about her story just stuck
with me
she was like many of us like me
at so many points in my life feeling
helpless sometimes abandoned
and just looking for a place to belong
i spent a week preparing for her arrival
she had been through so much so much
pain
and i knew it would be a lot for her i
thought of
how strong i would have to be for her
knowing that
she’s had such a difficult life
full of challenges and pain she couldn’t
see clearly she was all
she was partially blind um and i was
really preparing myself to be ready for
this
challenge and the love that she would
need
i knew she would be possibly guarded and
snappy and
i would need so much time to build trust
with her
it seemed a little familiar to me
reminded me of
times i had had to build my walls up and
protect myself and just put a brave face
to the world
so the day she finally came i went
to pick her up um
and all my training and preparation that
i had done
out of the window this
wounded soldier that i was preparing for
that’s not who came
um she just slept into my arms
immediately covered me with love
and a lot of slobber i didn’t
realize it at the time but looking back
um i needed her much more
than she ever needed me
what ensued with our relationship was
just a crazy roller coaster of a bond
that i can never forget
playing tug of war with pillows stealing
food from the kitchen
day spends in office together she became
quite a celebrity in the office
too and we had just become inseparable
um through our time together
pamby taught me the most important
lessons
about resilience number one
she taught me to hold myself lightly
and connect with my inner child
to savor the little things and not take
myself
so seriously then our experiences might
be challenging at times
but life doesn’t have to be so hard
she helped me remind myself that
i’m human and the world is full it’s
not just challenges and pain
there is abundance and love all around
me
and i just needed a fresh perspective
she made me stop living a life
that was busy and instead
helped me live a life that was full
that was complete
the second thing she taught me was to
always
work with 100 love and trust
the same love and trust she had with me
to be emotional to be expressive
and connect deeply with my people
to the people who work alongside me
every day
um she taught me that that was my
strength
my strength was my vulnerability not
my guarded walls i think the most
important lesson which is the crux of
all of this is that she taught me that
resilience is not hard and painful
and it shouldn’t have to hurt i’m not a
machine and i’m not at war
and i need to take care of myself before
i can give to others
people in service or caregivers
who work with children in communities
who are under resourced
we tend to push ourselves beyond
superhuman limits
there is a pandemic and we need to feed
our families
we need to reach children who have no
access and
work with teachers who never use
technology
and it’s completely on us to solve this
crisis because
this is a large part of india right now
but it’s not
resilience is not about being tough
through challenges it’s not about
self-sacrifice and it’s not about
burnout
it doesn’t have to feel hard
and it is not self-preservation
resilience is a simple act
of love and compassion
for others but most importantly for
ourselves
taking time out for your mental health
practicing self-compassion
practicing care and just pausing
being gentle and deliberate and taking
the world in
that is what resilience is about
so just to close if i had to
leave you with something today
it would be this what
is your act of compassion
to yourself today because only then
you are truly resilient