The Difficult in Life Is How I Found Myself

I did not find myself in the moments that went according to plan.
Those days passed quietly, useful but unremarkable.

I found myself in the difficult.

In the seasons that asked more than I felt ready to give.
In the moments when certainty disappeared and I had to choose without a map.
In the experiences that stripped away titles, momentum, and the stories I told about who I was supposed to be.

Difficulty has a way of doing that. It removes what is performative and it leaves what is true.

When life became hard, I met parts of myself I had never needed before.
Patience I had not practiced, courage I did not know I carried, humility that arrived uninvited and stayed.

The difficult did not arrive to break me…it arrived to reveal me.

It showed me what I value when comfort is no longer available.
It clarified what matters when options narrow.
It taught me how to stand without leaning on what once held me up.

I would not have chosen those moments, I did not welcome them, but I learned to listen to them.

Because in the hard places, the noise falls away.
What remains is a quieter voice, asking more honest questions.

Who are you when the familiar disappears?
What do you keep when you cannot keep everything?
What do you become when you have no choice but to continue?

I did not find myself by avoiding the difficult.
I found myself by staying present inside it.

The difficult shaped me.
Not by force.
By invitation.

And when I look back now, I see it clearly.

The difficult in life is how I found myself.

Resilience Reset: Embrace the difficult and look for a gift.