I just heard a beautiful story that I wanted to share with the group:

During Hurricane Sandy, there was a housing complex in which there were 10 houses which were built exactly the same. When the Hurricane happened, 5 of the houses were completely destroyed and 5 of the houses remained standing.

The builder of the houses couldn’t understand how this had happened. He had built them exactly the same. Then he discovered that the houses that were destroyed had internal water systems. So, the trees on the property did not have as deep of a root system and therefore, the wind was able to knock them down. The other houses did not have the internal water system. So, the roots of the trees had to go much deeper. When the strong wind came, they were able to withstand the pressure and remained strong.

It is a beautiful parable: we think that life is so much better when we are given everything we need easily and without having to work for it. But, really, when we have to struggle and work for what we need, we are able to be more resilient and cope and survive adversity.

I guess we can say that through adversity, we gain strength.