As I contemplate dealing with yet another year of COVID, I am motivated to write about resilience. Resilience is that part of our character that either helps us live through tough times, or prevents us from moving forward.

I have found that life teaches us all about resilience, if we are willing to listen. Navigating through hardships is painful, but guides us through the next challenge. We say that youth is wasted on the young. Perhaps this is because age and experience have not yet taught us how to manage and appreciate life. Some do go through hardship early, and if successful, they come out on the other side stronger, smarter, and wiser. Yes…it does indeed take a journey.

No one truly understands what you’re experiencing. Perhaps it is difficulties related to the pandemic as it affects your psyche, finances, relationship, job, or physical health. The best words of advice somehow capture in just a few phrases the reality of being human, and illuminate an essential element of our experience. Here are a few quotes about resilience that I found meaningful:

“Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.”― Nelson Mandela

“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”― Maya Angelou

“My barn having burned down, I can now see the moon.” ― Mizuta Masahide (17th century Japanese poet and samurai)

“Rock bottom became the solid foundation in which I rebuilt my life.”― J.K. Rowling

“She stood in the storm, and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails.”― Elizabeth Edwards

“Grief and resilience live together.”― Michelle Obama

“Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems.”― Gever Tulley

“No matter how bleak or menacing a situation may appear, it does not entirely own us. It can’t take away our freedom to respond, our power to take action.” ― Ryder Carroll

“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.”― Steve Maraboli

Let’s conclude with Rainer Maria Rilke: “Let everything happen to you. Beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.”

I wish all of you a year of experiences that bring greater health, happiness, and joy!

Dr. Alan Frischer is former chief of staff and former chief of medicine at Downey Regional Medical Center. Write to him in care of this newspaper at 8301 E. Florence Ave., Suite 100, Downey, CA 90240.