How magical that a new dawn is upon us every 24 hours of our lives.

It is not just a moment when the sun rises. It is the beginning of an astounding new chapter — perhaps the dawn of a new era in our lives.

It is a moment when the chaos of the prior day is behind us, and in the quiet hours of morning, it is not unusual for the solutions to those problems to align, to metaphorically “dawn” on you.

But those possibilities only occur if we embrace our resilience — one of our greatest gifts, and one that is so often forgotten.

“I love to read biographies, not for the successes, which are very public, but for the many falls, the setbacks, the climb back up again and again. There is a famous Japanese proverb from the 1500s: ‘Fall down seven times, get up eight.’ It also describes my own life and journey. People see the trappings of success — the charity work, the travel — and somehow assume it arrived on a silver platter. But we all know success does not happen that way.

Success is achieved not in a straight line, but rather through repeated highs and lows, triumphs and mistakes. It is earned — not given as a gift fallen from the sky. There is not one success that occurs without those repeated resilient dawns.

They are a time of self-forgiveness, of love, of quiet meditation, and of sheer persistence. I painted this soul to remind the viewer of his or her own power — the ability to try again, forgive again, love again, and reach forward, forever forward. Embracing each resilient dawn.”

— Ashley Collins

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive — to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”

— Marcus Aurelius