Guiding Our Children’s Resilience: The Powerful Lessons of the Buffalo

You may have heard that both cows and buffalo run when a storm is coming. However, cows run away from the storm, and buffalo run into the storm.

A.J. Juliani, a Professor in the School of Education at UPenn, explains it in this way:

What cows do is very natural. Cows sense the storm coming from the west and so they start to try to run toward the east. The only problem with that is that if you know anything about cows you know they aren’t very fast.

So the storm catches up with the cows rather quickly. And without knowing any better the cows continue to try to outrun the storm. But instead of outrunning the storm they actually run right along with the storm. Maximizing the amount of pain and time and frustration they experience from that storm!

What buffalo do on the other hand is very unique for the animal kingdom. Buffalo wait for the storm to cross right over the crest of the peak of the mountaintop and as the storm rolls over the ridge the buffalo turn and charge directly into the storm.

Instead of running east away from the storm they run west directly at the storm. By running at the storm they run straight through it. Minimizing the amount of pain and time and frustration they experience from that storm.

Notice how it’s the exact same storm. It’s such a great metaphor for all of us, but especially for our children as many of them are dealing with the same types of storms.

There are many changes ahead of our children. Let’s teach them how to head into them with the right mindset.