Carl Jung believed we humans have the ability to transform ourselves -- to deepen and broaden our strengths and fill in, tunnel under, or bridge over our gaps. This ability serves us whether we are developing ourselves through trying times or satisfying situations. This ability serves both our shine and our shadow. Jung unequivocally believed we have within ourselves the power to commit alchemy; we are able to turn our experiences from one form into another.

     The gift of resilience is essential to transformation on a deep level. In fact, without resilience, while we might make major and minor changes in our behaviors or patterns, we often continue to think one thing and do another. With resilience, though, we can create transformation. Through resilience, we forever, alchemically, alter our heads, hearts and hands.

     What are the qualities of resilience that offer us humans this power? The word resilience immediately calls forth the sense of silk, and images of silk float in the mind's eye:

Long white silk sheets, moving this way and that,
as though motivated by the very nature of silkiness --
strength and suppleness coupled with oh, such softness...
and an awareness that movement is also
a result of environmental factors -- wind, humidity and temperature.

Multitudes of varied-colored silk banners
--proclamations of attention, calls for awareness and action --
are heard and felt.
Nobility of spirit is sensed
with the banner's bold and true announcements of,
"I am this; give me your fealty, your fidelity.
Your faith resides in me."

     Continuing with the silk analogy, the word resilience immediately suggests strength of character, of someone who is both stable and mobile, well-connected and free. Stable does not mean rigid; stable means I am willing to put my stake in the ground here, to build my life here, to proclaim that this is who I am here and now. Moreover, it is essential that this ownership of self be accompanied by membership with all of Life, with a capital L. We are resilient in relationship, rather than in isolation. Resiliency flows from our connectedness with each other, with our immediate environment and, even more vital, with the Universe. When we also perceive ourselves as a once-in-this-universe part of a process, as is the silkworm's wondrous way of spinning mulberry leaves into silk, we are supported in unimaginable ways

     Furthermore, mobile doesn't mean being all over the place; the second quality of resilience, means I am willing to move my stake, should this ground prove unfertile for growing myself. Otherwise, I am killing myself, in some way, shape or form. Mobile means that I accept and adjust to my environment, where, and as long as, my integrity and authenticity is nurtured. Mobility coexists with stability. We are mobile in relationship; we are able to move with consciousness because we are well-connected. When we acknowledge that we are part of the Flow, we both ground ourselves and free ourselves.

     Think of some people on whom we bestowed fame: Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Vaclav Havel. Regardless of how many flaws or gaps any of them exhibited, their strength of character, their resilience, is what we admire and respect. They knew and lived a truth that Jung understood and taught -- we are resilient. We do not have to try to be, or wish to be, or strive to be -- we are able to be stable and mobile at the same time. Just because we forget that we are able doesn't mean we are not. They add one essential factor, one vital power to the head, hand and heart equation--hope. By doing so, they give us the recipe for creating the alchemical changes Jung knew can occur. They offer us the inspiration to be resilient, to stand grounded and giving.

In one more flight of fancy, I can hear Fred Astaire's voice singing the words of this philosophy...

Nothing's impossible I have found,
For when my chin is on the ground,
I pick myself up, dust myself off
And start all over again......

This is the power of resilience, the means of alchemy, pure and simple!

~ Marguerite Chabau