In the blackest soils grow the fairest flowers, and the loftiest and strongest trees spring heavenward among the rocks.
J. G. Holland
Adversity is not just part and parcel of human life, but also an essential ingredient thereof, for a life without hardships is an insipid life. In fact, our problems help us in more ways than one.
For starters, they bring out a person’s true character. Hardships are what help people tell talkers from doers; those who make tall claims about every other thing from those who know how to step up their game when the going gets tough. Everyone is entitled to harbor high hopes for the future, and everyone has the potential to achieve those dreams.
However, it is one thing to create targets in the good times and quite another to stay faithful to them when things do not appear quite so good. Most ships are sturdy enough to withstand storms, but the same does not hold true for all captains. It takes a resolute personality and steely determination to weather the storm or even take proactive measures to take charge of the situation.
Another positive thing about trials and tribulations is how they make us so much more prepared and stronger for the challenges to come. Remember, the path to no worthwhile goal is without thorns, so the sooner one learns to navigate them, the farther they are likely to get in the pursuit of their dreams. Even if one fails to evade such calamities in time, they serve as a great lesson – so long as one is more interested in learning those lessons than victimizing themselves – for the road ahead.
Josiah Gilbert Holland was an American novelist. Holland also wrote under the pseudonym Timothy Titcomb. On the importance of tragedy in life, he once remarked: “In the blackest soils grow the fairest flowers, and the loftiest and strongest trees spring heavenward among the rocks.”