Nobody wants the plane to spend 2 hours stuck on the runway—especially when you’re traveling with kids. Nobody wants to get that call from the school nurse. Nobody wants to find out they’ve been laid off.

We don’t want these scenarios. We rightfully dread these scenarios. We seek to avoid these scenarios. But why is it so hard for us to see the silver lining in them?

It’s time we get to spend with our kids. The time on the plane is still part of the trip, as we’ve said. Getting to take care of them in a quiet house, taking their temperature, bringing them water or medicine, this is quality time as much as anything else you could do. And while you search for a new job, you not only get to pick them up and drop them off in ways that you couldn’t before, but you get a chance to show them what dealing with adversity looks like.

We don’t have to like or even seek out this situation where we are but we can like the byproduct of it, we can choose to accept the gift it is giving us—a chance to spend more time with people we love. Because, you know, not every situation does provide that. Some things take us away. Some things keep us apart. So whatever it is that we’re doing, we ought to be grateful when it gives us a chance to be together. It is the silver lining to look for.