When we hear someone say, “He’s a strong person,” or “She has great inner strength,” it can mean different things to each of us. The word “strong” has a wide variety of definitions available for it, but the one(s) I want to concentrate on here are those relating to strength of character; strength of spirit. Hands down the largest message I want to impart in this piece is that just because someone appears to be strong… behaves in a manner that expresses a greater inner strength… is constantly helping others, DOES NOT mean that they aren’t fighting their own battles. (more…)

My family once owned a dog that we named ThunderStorm and just called Storm. He was a chocolate Labrador from a big family and, full grown, weighed about 100 pounds. The odd thing we discovered about him, from the earliest days we had him as a puppy, was that he loved to go out and play in the rain.  I don’t mean those occasionally warm spring and summer showers… I mean thunder and lightning downpours that created puddles in minutes.  He delighted in going out to play in those puddles. He’d splash and frolic and bury his face in them, shake off and do it again. We hated thunderstorms. They meant someone was going to have to put on a rain coat, hat and boots to leash the dog and take him out. (more…)

Yes, I admit to “baiting” with the title. I was hoping it would make people wonder, “What might that be?” or “What does this guy Borelli think it is?”  My answer: Overcoming adversity. Out of the thousands of skills we need to learn (and hopefully master) throughout our lives, the ability to successfully cope with and overcome adversity is the single most important skill we can master.  I KNOW there are plenty of people thinking, “But what about…?” and putting in a different life’s skill.  I won’t argue you with you because there may be other life skills that you as an individual feel are more important.  To me – because of the quirks of my personality, knowledge and life’s experience – overcoming adversity is the single most important life skill a person needs to master. Using some contemporary events, let me expound a little bit on why. (more…)