Burning cakes. What’s going on in the kitchen?!

It’s the second series of The Missing on the BBC and the French detective, Julien Baptiste hits the nail on the head.

A young woman is upset, having burned a cake in the oven. There’s smoke pouring everywhere.

She wants to be a chef and furious at this outcome, she announces herself ‘a failure!’

But Baptiste, newly arrived in her home, won’t allow that.

‘It’s only a failure if you give up,’ he says. ‘For now, it’s just an experience.’

Here is the heartbeat of resilience.

The growing ability within us (and it’s a big and difficult learning) to respond rather than react to events.

Nothing in itself is a failure; the deep truth of the event lies in our response.

‘It’s only a failure if you give up,’ says Julien. ‘For now, it’s just an experience.’