There are moments when going on is the only thing that you can do. It is not always a matter of knowing why and sometimes there are simply no words. What had to be done, had to be done to move on. This is where resilience makes the difference more than anything else.

There is an environment, something has to be done and you act or someone else will act. In psychology there is the term “locus of control.” This term was coined by Julian B. Rotter in 1966 with his “I-E Scale.” “I” means internal and “E” means external. The locus of control according to Rotter indicated the extent to which someone was in control of his or her decisions. In short he intended it as a test for identifying drives for individual achievement versus conformity to others.

In Hofstede‘s work “Cultures and Organisation” resilience plays a big part in the individuality versus collectivity dimension of culture. The way he looked at and research culture led to some interesting findings. Thing is social sciences do not include nature by definition. Social sciences focus on human behaviour.

When I think of resilience, or more specifically the beauty of resilience I look at nature. In search of inspiration I saw the flowers in the balcony. I looked once and then I looked again. If there is one thing that beautifully survives many situations it is a flower, whether it is a weed or not. I cannot make the picture prettier than it is impressive. There is hardly any soil for that flower.

They might not be much of a sight. You might overlook them and forget them. Little creatures and plants show an amount of resilience and adaptability that is still impressive. The little flowers still sit there.

Haiku

Flowers in shades

A balcony with little soil

Still the petals show