Resilience: Be a willow, not an oak Ashton Graham View Comments Webster defines “resilience” as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness” and “the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.” What does it take to be resilient? Do you think of yourself as resilient? Resilience is complex. By the time you get to be my age you’ve most likely been through your share of difficulty whether it is physical, emotional, financial, the death of a loved one, illness, divorce — the list goes on. Do you have a toolbox to deal with the difficulties? Reflecting on my past difficulties I will admit at times I may have crawled into the bottle or eaten way too much ice cream dealing with a loss, but that is not the answer; it is just unhealthy destructive behavior.