by Cyrus A. Natividad

Resilience is defined as a capacity to return a thing to its original state, and in extreme situations, even improve its quality.

In terms of human, resilience lets a person recover emotional equilibrium, or become stronger after going through a traumatic situation.

What can be done while confined at home (on orders of lawful authorities for our safety against the coronavirus)?

First, there is enough time to refresh – bond with the family and work on something we have so long planned to do.

Right on the To-do list, one of those healthy activities which we can enjoy a lot is gardening. Family members get involved — including some innocent but sensible kids that help you smile and make your day.

Gardening creates freshness in the mind. We are pulled to appreciate living things — trees, bushes, and grasses.

The best about it is planting vegetables. Choose green, leafy vegetables. Medicinal herbs are especially important. This time we run out of vegetables in the market. We realize that this crisis eventually leads us to realize the need for healthy living with vegetables.

When we successfully plant them, we have joy in harvesting and taking them as healthy foods.

The next thing worth doing this time is recycling. We need to look at the unusable, dispensable containers before throwing them out to the garbage.

Big water canisters, food crates, and unusable containers can be made into additional beautiful planters which we wish we have done before. It can also save money on the otherwise expensive but fragile pots.

The third hobby-like activity this home quarantine time, or this summer, is painting. Unless one is an artist who wants to paint on canvass with different media.

Colorful painting on these recycled planters can be done with an ordinary hemp brush with a pint of tinting color each mixed with a quart of ordinary white enamel or latex.

Basically adding colors to the garden should give the essential color one needs to always have a brightened life.

The long days of being at home can give anyone time to look back, reflect on the present circumstances, how it came about, as one has to look forward with renewed strength, and renewal of each plan.

God be with us as we do our best to move into the challenges of another day ahead.