Strength When There is Nothing Else

And the second thing I wanted to post this week is a quote I saw in, of all places, a wallpaper app for my tablet.  Lol!  But it struck a chord with me so here it is:

You don't know how strong you really are until strong is all you have.


I have found this to be true twice in my life so far.

The first time was when I had three babies under the age of two.  There was, and still is, no break from parenting.  But in those first two years, my husband and I summed it up in one word: Relentless.

Of course, the second time I had to rely on "strong" was living through the bowels of Meniere's disease.  I am happy to say I've had a reprieve, but the first two years of that experience, too, were Relentless.

In both cases, I had no choice but to succumb to reality.  I had to embrace what I could not change.  The only things I could change were my expectations.  I don't want to say I lowered them, because really it was much harder to rise up to the respective challenges and face them head on than it would have been to just let them consume me.

When being "strong", we have to acknowledge and accept our limitations.  Trying to fight them takes valuable energy that can be put forth instead in reevaluating what our expectations for our life are and then have the ability to let some of them go and rebuild new ones.  Oftentimes we simply cannot do this until faced with no other choice.  Or the only other choice being one that involves being consumed with hate, anger, and frustration.  Strong is finding a way to move past these necessary stages of grieving and finding new peace someplace you would have not otherwise thought to look for it.

Sometimes you have to admit you are weak to find out you are strong.  You must acknowledge that some things are just beyond your control and that that is okay.  Then Strong shows up and carries you through.