This morning, I came across a quote that made me smile: “Every adversity carries with it the seed of an equivalent benefit, waiting to germinate into a full-blown flower of opportunity.”
It resonated with a truth I have carried with me for years — a biblical principle that says you may go into battle, but you do not come out empty-handed. You come out carrying the spoils.
As I sat with that thought, I realised it is exactly what has happened in my own life.
There was a season when I could only see certain experiences through the lens of what they had cost me — the disappointment, the disruption, the plans that never materialised the way I had imagined. But growth has a way of changing our perspective. With enough distance, healing and wisdom, we begin to see that some of the experiences we would never have chosen for ourselves are the very ones that forced us to become more.
My experience with my business engagements this year was one of those.
Had things unfolded differently, I might never have been forced to change direction, refocus, and take greater ownership of what I was building. Departure of relationships I thought was meant to be, could easily have become a reason to stop and a reason to sink into disappointment under the sudden weight of everything now resting on my shoulders.
But I didn’t stop. I carried on.
And somewhere in the carrying on, something remarkable happened: the accreditations that was meant to have come into my business as a result of partnerships became accreditations I went out and secured myself. What first looked like loss became an invitation to grow.
Today, I can look back and say: for that, I am grateful. Not for everything that happened but for what happened within me because of it.
I am grateful for my resilience. I am grateful for my ability to persevere. I am grateful that every time circumstance has demanded more of me, I have somehow found more within myself to give.
Most of all, I am grateful because I am recognising a part of myself I thought I had lost — the woman who keeps going, who finds another way, who can feel disappointment without letting it define her, who rebuilds and moves forward anyway.
I recognise Sophie Glenda Maitin.
She was never gone. Perhaps she was simply buried beneath responsibility, disappointment, expectation, and the weight of becoming everything everyone else needed her to be. But she is still here. And today, I am thankful for her.
These experiences have given me mastery over my most formidable adversary — myself.
There is something powerful about reaching a point where victory is no longer about proving something to someone else. It becomes about understanding yourself — what nourishes you and what depletes you, what feeds your soul and what disturbs your peace, what you are capable of surviving, and more importantly, what you are capable of becoming.
Perhaps that is one of adversity’s greatest gifts. We enter our battles believing victory means getting back what we lost. Sometimes the real victory is discovering what was inside us all along. And through every disappointment, every redirection, every unexpected ending and new beginning, I have been led back to the Source and Supply of all good.
So this morning, my reflection is simply one of gratitude… for the battles, for the spoils, for the growth, for the woman who persevered. And gratitude that, after everything, I can look within and say with certainty: I recognise her. I recognise Glenda.
If you are in a season that feels like loss right now, hold on. You may be carrying more spoils than you realise.
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