The Spirit of Gumby

Posted by Terry McNichols

At a recent leadership training meeting to prepare for an upcoming trip to El Salvador, one of the seasoned leaders told us that he encourages his team members to travel with the "Spirit of Gumby." Flexibility at all times, no matter what the stressors!

This is excellent advice for the participants of a mission trip and I plan to use it as a rallying cry and mascot on our upcoming January trip. But it also applies to how we navigate through the rest of our lives.

My "Spirit of Gumby" has been sorely tested the last several weeks, as I function without the use of one eye and find my own personal resilience stretched! Mirriam-Webster Dictionary defines resilience as "an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change." Sounds a lot like the "Spirit of Gumby." Sounds a lot like what is needed to traverse this treacherous road of aging.

(Photo by Looking Glass, shared via Flickr)