Are We Resilient by Nature?

A small, lone evergreen tree, renowned for its ability to find footing and survive on an outcropping of basalt rock along the North Shore of Lake Superior, fell this winter during a prolonged storm with strong winds. Its demise was noteworthy enough to claim space on social media and cause many who live in and visit the area to sense a loss. What did we lose when the tree fell? I think the tree was a metaphor for resilience.

Painting my own. Copyright 2022.

I was reminded of the fallen tree when I read “I don’t want to be resilient no mo’” from Robert the Contemplative here on Substack. Robert says, “Resilient lost its romance for me at an early age when I saw my parents struggle to survive in a world that didn’t seem to love them back.”

The word resilient literally means “to bounce back” like a sponge, a wire spring, or a tree bounces back. Psychologists have adopted the word and use it to encourage people to learn how to cope, adapt, and recover from trauma. Thousands of titles across self-help, psychology, memoir, business, and literature genres have been and continue to be published on the topic of resilience, attesting to our quest to learn about resilience. I think we’ve lost sight of our resilience, because we don’t allow for it.

“I want a soft life,” says Robert the Contemplative even as he admits he may not know what that means. I think he has, accidently perhaps, identified what we all want, which is to take a break in the storm, to have time to rest in ease and comfort. That is, I believe, the key to internal resilience.

When reflecting on my own thoughts about resilience, I’m always drawn to the natural world of which we are part.

What our world shows us about resilience

A manmade sponge is resilient until it isn’t. Ocean sponge (actually an animal) is resilient until it isn’t. A tree is resilient and tenacious until it isn’t. Our minds and bodies are resilient and tenacious until they aren’t. Our government is resilient until it isn’t. Everything—a sponge, a tree, our minds and bodies, our governing body—has capacity to be resilient. Nothing in nature needs to be resilient 100 percent of the time, however. The tree wasn’t buffeted by strong winds every day of its life. It rested with ease on sunny, warm, breezy, days. A sponge isn’t always being wrung to release liquid. It rests quietly until it’s needed again.

We have resilience. It’s in the things we know and do naturally, including rest, reflect, and play. But I think we overwhelm our capacity for resilience.

Finding comfort

Our human bodies and minds are not designed to be under stress 24-7. We have capacity, like the tree or sponge, to resist chaos. But like the tree or sponge, we also need to rest, feel joy, visit friends, create art, write, knit, fish, play games, use our imaginations. I think finding comfort—living a “soft life”—some part of every day is a choice most of us can make. We just have to choose it. During the recent Full Moon in the sign Leo, I chose to walk the luminated trail at the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Center. It was a nippy 18 degrees and clouds covered the moon; yet, it was still and beautiful. And fun!

Photo my own. Copyright 2025.

Nature and planets

My biggest takeaways from observing nature, and the planets through astrological practice, is that everything has a cycle of phases, and change is constant. The moon waxes and wanes. Seeds rest in soil before they grow in response to heat toward the light. Spring will follow winter, and I do look forward to that! Even when we don’t actually see things changing, they are.

The maxim “as above, so below” is among the first things students of astrology learn. “As above, so below” is referencing evidence that planetary cycles and planetary interactions correlate with activities happening here on earth and in our lives (from an astrological perspective). By interaction I mean the relationship in space of a planet to other planets as they all orbit around the Sun.

I said earlier: We are part of the natural world. Because we are, we are subject to the same forces of nature that affect every other animate being or inanimate thing—even if we can’t (or won’t) recognize that truth. That is fate.

But, I don’t want this fate…

Many of us feel as if we’re living in, caught up in, someone else’s version of reality. A reality we didn’t ask for and a fate we don’t want. Feelings of overwhelm and helplessness associated with feeling caught up are real. We feel it! Many of the feelings we have are rooted in fear of loss and threat of limitations. What we do to avoid being consumed or overcome by chaos is where free will and choice come in.

What’s happening with the planets?

The Sun joined Mercury, Saturn, and Neptune in water-sign Pisces February 18. The Moon was in water-sign Scorpio, and Mars is retrograde in water-sign Cancer.

What’s happening within us?

The universal path through water signs Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces highlights a period of time when emotions are high and emotional responses are often intense. Emotions can create (imagine) problems as well as inspire solutions. Emotions that limit us or make us feel vulnerable are created within ourselves. And only we can free ourselves from emotional entrapments.

I’m going to focus on Saturn and Pisces to explore possible choices. Nothing is as boundless as an ocean (Pisces) and Saturn is a master architect, a talented engineer, a minimalist by nature, and the timekeeper of our universe. Saturn’s influence is present in all our lives in both large and small ways.

Saturn in Pisces

Pisces is associated with (not limited to) creative imagination, artists of all kinds, religions of all kinds, the occult, incarceration, confinement (cloistered nuns and hermitages, for example), gas and gaslighting, spirits, spiritualism, spiritual matters, intoxication and addiction, secrets, dreams and nightmares, oceans. Everyone experiences Piscean manifestations every day somewhere in their lives. Religion may be important to you, or not, but the concept of religion is present either way. You might feel influenced by or be a witness or victim of gaslighting, or you might be the person doing the gaslighting. Either way, it’s present in your life.

Saturn is associated with (not limited to) people: authority figures, engineers and architects, conservatives and conservatism, mercenaries; and with things in our environment and things we build/create: time itself, boundaries, rocks, foundations and frameworks (including skeletal bones), endings, decay, depression, harsh environments, rational reasoning, minimalism, sorrow, suppression, contraction, governing systems. Everything listed here has a spectrum of meanings and possible expressions (from minimal to extreme).

For example, an “ending” may be the end day of the week: Saturday is Saturn’s day. Or it could be the end of employment. A barrier or boundary can set limits or limit access; it could also offer protection—it’s a matter of personal perspective. Each of us will experience Saturn’s influence in different ways, but we can look to Saturn as the common denominator in all experiences (physical, emotional, spiritual) of loss, suppression, decay that transforms, systems creation, foundations, rational, etc.

Resilience while Saturn traverses an ocean (Pisces)

“Necessity is the mother of invention” — attributed to Greek philosopher Plato

Here’s the reality that so many of us lose sight of: most of what’s going on around us is the product of someone else’s imagination, of someone’s dream and ambition. Everything. And not everything is bad or ugly.

I’m using my imagination to create a way to use Saturn to help me during this challenging (for me) transit of Saturn through Pisces. I decided to imagine I have a small ocean-worthy boat. It’s a very minimal structure, but it’s my ground, and I’m not sinking. My little structure takes on water (heavy emotions) sometimes, and imagined scenarios can make me feel anxious. Some days are stormy around me. But most of the time when I look out at the world, I see the calm life I’ve created reflected back to me. I feel ease if/when I allow it.

This is, I think, what resilience is. It’s using our resources to help us live as well as we can. Each of us has earned or collected resources to help us live. Education, community, skills, creativity, etc. We have creative imaginations. We have a strong internal system—our emotions—that can help us know what to do, when to engage or retreat and rest. Emotions are only a trap when we don’t know what to do with them.

We’re all in this together—crossing the Piscean ocean—feeling vulnerable. Take inventory of your survival skills. Tune into yourself. Tune out the storm.

Saturn will be in Pisces through May 24, 2025, when it moves to Aries, where Mars is the host.