The other day I heard blogger and author Glennon Doyle Melton explain that the root meaning of the word crisis is "to sift." And like a child sifting through sand at the beach for seashells, during a crisis everything unnecessary falls away and you are left with the treasures. All that you need can't be taken from you.
I thought that was so powerful. During a crisis, whether it's about health, finances, relationships or something else, it can seem like the end of the world. Like nothing is right and life will never be the same again.
It probably won't be the same again, but it will be a new normal. And those challenges are what make us grow. Make us do things we never thought we could. Make us become more of ourselves.
John F. Kennedy once said, "When written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity."
We will all face hard times in life. Many of us will spend moments at our own personal rock bottom. But that will be where we learn some of our most valuable lessons. If we remember to sift through the chaos and find the person we were meant to be.