This section covers suffering and ways to handle times of suffering.

—Radio Broadcast Question—Overheard someone ask this question, “What do you think the younger generation needs to learn about the most?” Curious, I listened for the answer.

—Answer—They said. “How to handle suffering.”

Suffering could be viewed metaphorically as the storms we encounter as we live our lives. Just as the weather changes constantly around us, the emotional forecast is ever-changing inside of us as well. Sometimes we feel overtaken by an internal storm and other times we can see there is a storm raging in the life of someone else. My hope is that each of you will grow in your ability to recognize when others are in trouble and also to better handle the storms that come into your own life which means becoming more resilient.

Resiliency is defined as “the ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity or the like; buoyancy (taken from dictionary.com).” I love that this definition adds buoyancy as a synonym. Buoyancy is the ability to float in water.

My talk today is an analogy I hope stays with you to encourage you that storms will come but they also don’t last forever. Your job is to strengthen your ship so that you remain buoyant and do not sink when the storms of troubles come.

First of all, for this talk, the ship metaphorically represents you—all that encompasses you, body, mind, and spirit.

Every ship needs an anchor. The purpose of an anchor is to keep the ship secure when the seas are rough. Other people can be our anchors when life gets rough. Each of you could be an anchor for someone else. I’m also going to use the word ANCHOR to help you remember how you can be an anchor for someone else as well as how to reach out for help when you need it.